Day 3 in the West Bank, Occupied Palestinian Territory

Thursday, May 29, 2008

By Gerald Lenoir

On the Road to Hebron

Fifteen of us traveled in a tour bus down Route 60, a road that only Israelis are allowed to drive on, on our way to Hebron. The Apartheid Wall snaked along side, dividing the Jewish settlements from the Palestinian villages. The Wall and the buffer zones on both side of it, gobble up 10% of the West Bank land and break up Palestinian land into South African-style Bantustans, with no access to the grape vines and orchards where Palestinians have labored for centuries. No access to grazing lands for their livestock.

As we made our way, our guide Kasem related to us the history of the area.
One and a half million Palestinians live in the West Bank, while half a million Jews live in 170 Jewish only “legal” settlements and 100 “colonial spots,” settlements that even the Israeli government admits are illegal. In the Hebron District, there are 32 Jewish settlements and 20 colonial spots that are home to 20,000 Jews. In the very heart of the Palestinian City of Hebron itself, there are four colonial spots.

The bizarre labyrinth of road lead from one Jewish settlement to the other, dotted with military towers. Only vehicle with yellow license plates that identify Jewish travelers and commercial vehicles, like ours, are allowed on the roads. We spotted Palestinians walking or riding donkeys close to our path.

We passed gleaming settlement after settlement, all fortified with Israeli troops, private security guard, security towers every few miles, check points, and road blocks. We also passed a Palestinian refugee camp, a shanty town established in 1948 when Israel was founded. The shacks that house 20,000 Palestinians stand in sharp contrast to the new housing complexes of Jewish settlement that surround it.

Entering Hebron
After an hour, we reached the outskirts of our destination. After driving to two check points that were inaccessible—one was for military only, the other was unstaffed—we reached the gate to Hebron. The guard at the gate, who, to my surprise, was black (probably an Ethiopian Jew), asked for all of our passports. He took them and after a few minutes, returned them to us and allowed us to enter Hebron.

Not far into Hebron, we came to another check point that separated Hebron 1, the Palestinian-controlled sector of the city where 40,000 Palestinians live, from Hebron 2, the Israeli-controlled sector of the city, where 120,000 Palestinians and 400 Jews live under the watchful eye of 1,200 heavily armed Israeli soldiers.

The helmeted Israeli soldier in green fatigues approached the bus with his finger on the trigger of a submachine gun strapped across his shoulder. Again we produced our passports for him. He went to the guard booth, made a phone call and returned to the bus to tell us we were denied access and that we would have to go back to the police station to get a special permit. Our Palestinian guide and driver has Israeli government-issued green cards that allowed them in the West Bank but they also had to be subjected to an additional security check.
We turned around and made the short trip back to the police station where we received the permit. Finally, after over 30 minutes of navigating the checkpoints and security matrix, we were allowed to enter Hebron 2.

The Rabbi, the Peacemaker and the Palestinian Shopkeeper
Our first destination was Biet Hadassa, a Jewish settlement in the heart of Hebron. At a Jewish Center built on confiscated Palestinian land, we met with Rabbi Simcha Hochbaum, a rightwing settler from the lower eastside of Manhattan. He gave us a tour of the exhibits in the center and talked to us about being Jewish in the second holiest city for Jews and Muslims.

His message was that it is better to be a live Jew living in Israel that to be a dead Jew, the victim of a Holocaust. He justified the occupation by relating to us the story of what he described as a massacre of Jews by Palestinians in Hebron in 1929. Kasem later told us that the struggle in Hebron in 1929 was part of a larger struggle between Palestinians and Jews, when Jews attempted to seize the western wall of Old Jerusalem, the so-called Wailing Wall that is sacred to both Muslims and Jews. After a member of our delegation challenged the Rabbi’s views, he told us about how good Jews have been to Palestinians, giving them schools and education, and that they were better off under the Israeli government that they had been under the Ottoman Empire. He spewed hatred and paternalism towards Palestinians.

Our next visit in Hebron was with a group called Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT). David Jansen’s talk with us was in direct juxtaposition to the Rabbi’s. CPT is an ecumenical group that travels to conflict areas around the world and supports oppressed peoples. David told us about their work in getting in between Israelis and Palestinians at the point of conflict and trying to mediate. They also escort Palestinian children to school because they are often subjected to taunts by Israeli soldiers calling them terrorists and to attacks by Israeli children and adults. David said that the estimates of Palestinian unemployment in Hebron range from 40 percent to 60 percent. He also talked about CPT’s work with indigenous nations in Canada in supporting their sovereignty rights and the need to challenge white privilege, his own included.
Our discussion with a Palestinian shop owner gave us some insight into the impact of the occupation. He told us that before the Israeli setters came to Hebron, the market place was thriving. The Israeli government forced them to relocate the market and because of the restricted travel, many Palestinians no longer shop there and the shopkeepers barley survive. We saw the poverty around us. Young school children begged us for dollars. They carried what they called Ibrahimi buckets, containers filled with soup given to them by the workers at the Ibrahimi Mosque.

Palestinians, the shopkeeper also told us, are subject to daily humiliation by the setters who confiscated the apartments above the market place and rain down trash and urine on them from open windows. He was, nevertheless, defiant and vowed to resist the occupation.

The Ibrahimi Mosque
Now on foot, we navigated two more checkpoints to enter the Ibrahimi Mosque. The Israeli government divided the mosque into two sections—one for Jews and one for Muslims. The Mosque contains shrines to Abraham, his wife Sarah and their children and their wives. Underneath the mosque, where no one is allowed to go, their bodies are buried. Kasem showed us the spot in the mosque where, in 1994, an imam and 28 praying Muslims were gunned down by Barak Goldstein, a radical Jewish settler from Brooklyn. Goldstein entered the mosque with a semiautomatic weapon, past armed Israeli guards. When his weapon jammed he was attacked by Muslims and beaten to death. During the evacuation of the mosque, 10 more Palestinians were killed by Israeli soldiers.

We left Hebron with better understanding of Palestinian and Jewish life in Occupied Palestine. We saw the good life of Jews who enjoy a superior standard of living, their privilege protected by hundreds of armed guards and soldiers, and the life of Palestinians who suffer the day-to-day poverty, humiliation and oppression of occupation.

APARTHEID, DEHUMANIZATION AND GENOCIDE IN PALESTINE - Day Two

By Iya Fulani Sunni-Ali


JIM CROW IN PALESTINE AND ISRAEL – WE HAVE SEEN THIS BEFORE!
The delegation of twenty seven peace builders organized by the Washington based Interfaith Peace Builders have arrived safely in Tel Aviv at Ben-Gurion airport on Tuesday, May 27, 2008.

On Wednesday, May 28, 2008, the delegation was welcomed to the United Nations Office For the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and received information and statistics regarding the illegal “Barrier” wall of separation which stretches over five hundred miles and effectively confines Palestinians and separates them from Israeli settlers. The “wall” and the newly constructed settlements are illegal because it is a continuing violation of International Law.

The TWC (Third World Coalition/AFSC) group of twelve in the delegation traveled to Hebron, Palestine on May 29. Hebron is the second largest city in the West Bank. Hebron District is 1000 square kilometers with one half million people. It is one third of the entire West Bank area and population. Hebron is one of the cities that was split between Palestinians and Israelis at a point when the government of Israel agreed to return the land to Palestine in 1997. Hebron (H-1) is under Palestinian authority and Hebron (H-2) is under Israel authority.

Upon entering Hebron our bus attempted to enter at two different check points. At the first one our guide was told by a soldier brandishing a galil assault rifle that only Israeli military could pass this point. At another check point there was no one at the gate. At the third check point we were met by a black Ethiopian armed settler protection guard. He asked for all passports to be given to him and after returning them he allowed us to enter. Inside the city we reached another check point as we entered the Israel settlement to meet with a right wing Rabbi settler who immigrated from New York. We were delayed for fifteen minutes as the soldier with a galil assault rifle checked the I.D. of our driver and guide. We were all sent to the police station to get a permission slip for our guide who has Palestinian identification. We were kept waiting there for another twenty minutes. Finally our guide was granted a permit and we proceeded into the city. Rabbi Simsa (sp?) based the Israeli militarization of H-2 on the historical events of 1929 in which many Jews and Arabs were killed. He sees the militarization as a necessary force to protect the “settler” community. Although the faith and spirituality of the Palestinian people have not been weakened, the political and military control using some eighty five check points is reminiscent to many of us of Jim Crow in the southern U.S. and Apartheid pass control in South Africa. These conditions are rapidly eroding hopes of an independent viable nation-state for the Palestinian people. In the ancient holy city of “H-2”, the Palestinian residents are under siege. At all times when leaving their homes, the Palestinian people are threatened by the galil assault rifle toting soldiers permanently stationed in front of their homes. These soldiers are there as occupiers to protect the “settlers” not for the security of the Palestinians. It was in the H-2 section that an “American” Hebrew doctor, Baruch Goldstein callously assassinated twenty nine Muslims in Masjid Al-Ibrahim while they prayed during the month of Ramadan in 1994. As the believers quickly evacuated the Masjid that day, ten more were gunned down by Israeli soldiers. Inside, the Palestinians who were unarmed retaliated with a fire extinguisher and killed the doctor. The Israeli government excused this action by saying that the doctor was insane and then declared him a national hero. There is now a shrine in his honor in Hebron-2.

Palestinians outnumber the 4-600 Israeli’s in Hebron, yet, they have very little freedom and are forbidden to drive or walk through Israeli neighborhoods or they could be shot. The Palestinians are forbidden by the Israel government to have weapons and therefore cannot defend themselves.

The highway 60 to Hebron is traveled only by Israeli’s and a few Palestinian vehicles with pass privileges. Highway 60 is monitored twenty four hours a day and access is controlled by check points with armed Israeli soldiers. Along the highway we noticed that there are earth mounds and gated barriers which block Palestinian vehicles from access. In some areas they must park and walk across the highway for miles to conduct business or visit relatives separated from them. These barriers are made with earth mounds, cement blocks, electrified gates and armed soldiers on the other side of them. This limits the Palestinians freedom and is depriving them of inalienable human rights. Even access to water is controlled by the Israeli government and is occasionally turned off according to some Palestinians for hours and even days each time. These are deprivations of human rights and are acts of genocide against a legitimate and subjugated nation.

If you are outraged by this information as we are as we witness it, then you too may find that these points of information must be shared with others who may be influenced also to demand intervention by the world community and to consider that it is your tax dollars being used annually by the United States to grant the government of Israel billions of dollars to finance their illegal occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza strip.
Iya Fulani Sunni-Ali


In Jerusalem
May 29, 2008
This is only the first of many brief reports. It has been intense and mentally draining for many in just our first week. No one here in Palestine is safe as this is an active war zone and security is clearly provided for the Israeli’s and no one else. We are all glad to be here and document these horrific conditions and share them with you. Please feel free to pass the information on to those you know. By the way, FYI, Bishop Desmond Tutu was granted entrance into the Gaza Strip this week and has now been denied entry into Israel, except to the airport. We are told that he has left the country.

If the Walls Could Talk

Picture - Darryl,Christian,Gerardo, Gabriel

Wed, May28th, 2008




IF THE WALLS COULD TALK
By Christian Ramirez

At first it was powerful blow of history to my consciousness. An overwhelming sensation in which all the conflicts, all the myths, all the hopes that have been and those to be had were suddenly concentrated in one place, in this time; we had just entered into the Old City through Herod's Gate.
Then the sensation of euphoria to be walking in one the longest inhabited cities in the world quickly turned into a harsh reality.
In East Jerusalem, in the Muslim Quarter, facing Palestinian shopkeepers there was a watchtower. In it a man stood guard with an assault rifle. Over the watchtower flew an Israeli flag. This was my first exposure to the illegal settlements that are at the root of this conflict.
The Third World Delegation continued its walking tour of the Old City. Shopkeeper after shopkeeper in the Muslim Quarter complained that thrash had not been picked up by the Jerusalem Municipality, which is under Israeli control. Palestinians here pay equal taxes as the Israelis, but they don't have equal services.
The delegation than walked along the Via Dolorosa, in the path that Jesus faced his passion. Along religious artifacts for Christians, Jews and Muslims, there were Israeli soldiers, Christian pilgrims and T-shirt stand were inscriptions that tainted the holiness of this magnificent city. Next to a Che Guevara t-shirt, there were those that read Israel: Uzi Does it.
We proceed towards the Jewish Quarter, it was a different city, the roads and pathways were clean, well illuminated, a stark comparison to the Muslim Quarter. We had just entered West Jerusalem and we were just a few meters away from the Western Wall, the most important shrine for Jewish people.
An impressive plaza surrounds the Western Wall. In 1948 Jews lost access to this important place of faith, nineteen years later Israeli paratroopers stormed this part of the Old City, soon thereafter the only Moroccan community that had lived within the walls of the Old City was bulldozed by the Israeli government, displacing thousands of people.
We left the Old City, a place of faith and history, but one that stands as a witness to intolerance and oppression. An ancient walled city that has seen many conflicts and today continues to contain within its walls, perhaps the biggest tragedy of our lifetime: the occupation of Palestinians.
We then traveled to a hill overlooking a beautiful valley, in front of us the golden dome of the Haram ash-Sharif, towards the east another wall, a much more modern wall, snaked up and down hills. It was the wall of separation erected by the Israeli government to protect the settlements of Israelis.
We approached the wall, a horrendous concrete structure that has separated Palestinian communities. On the top of the hill adjacent to wall of separation, a building that once operated as a hotel is now a military garrison and checkpoint. A Palestinian family welcomed us to their home which now faces the 12 foot separation wall and the former hotel turned military checkpoint. The head of the household, a middle aged Palestinian man took us to the terrace of his home.
He told us that his family is now separated, that he cannot visits his cousins only meters away but separated by the monstrosity of the cement wall.
I asked the Palestinian man, what message he wanted to send to the United States, his response put into perspective the plight of the Palestinian people. He said, "We have sent millions of messages and no one has listened."
Let us hear his message, we must hear his message. So long as one receptive ear hears the Palestinian people their struggle will continue.

Wednesday, May 28th, 2008 - Jerusalem

Old City, Jerusalem. It was a good day; it begain with a three hour tour through Old City. We saw a bunch of he different stations where Jesus carried the cross. We learned about the history of Old City, the different quarters for Jews, Christians, and Muslums.

oh man! i'm trying to download more pictures but i can't. Anyways, today was a great day, we went to old city, we met with Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affiars and Israeli Committee Against House Demolition - we really learned so much.
We have toured through Palestinian neighborhoods that are disappearing and are being pushed out and demolished by Israeli settlements. We have seen the demarcation of the green line, and yet seen the WALL extend beyond the border/the green line. We have seen communities become surrounded by Israeli settlements and the WALL where their only access to healthcare and education are through a tunnel that Israel has built to compensate for the settlements and the WALL. We are learning more from our delegation members ( Israelis, Palestinians, American Jews, Native Americans, Latinos) and locals. More about today...

Miryam is out! Our brave leader was giving Israelis hell at the airport.

Yeap It's Tel Aviv - Don't Get Too Excited - our Whole Delegation is not in.

From DC, Heathrow, to Tel Aviv - We made it to Israel, yet one of our delegation members got stopped. We've been waiting for the last two hours in the airport - taking space and being politely persistent. We aren't sure she’ll get admitted. Palestinians are targeted and interrogated when entering into Israel – in their native country. How backwards is that? As we wait, we are getting more and more nervous that she may not be admitted. If she’s not allowed into the country, a different plan of action is needed.
We have taken up so much space that a number of tour-guides have asked us to move aside, claiming that we are in the way. Well this tour-guide asked us to move, and we informed him that we are sitting here waiting for our friend to get out of interrogation - the answer was no. Wow - that got him all fired up. He told us that we are in his country and we cannot tell him what to do. And he there threatened to call security. We don't feel so welcomed here. And, of course, they lost my bag – only my bag in London. Ugghh!!!!!!!!! - Koyuki - 6:27pm 5/27/08

The Calm Before the Storm

We just about finished with our orientation. Interfaith-Peacebuilders has been amazing, they have set up an itinerary that allows us to meet with and learn from everyone. How to translate our experences and words from the people we have met into action back here in the US? This will be our challenge. Our delegation is ready to jump in and learn.

Let's Get Ready to Blog!!

Welcome to our delegation blog to Israel/Palestine. We will be documenting our travels throughout the region and sharing our stories. I'll be introducing the individuals on our delegation.