Category: Journals

Volunteers with the International Solidarity Movement are encouraged to write personal reflections about the work they engage in with Palestinian communities, the events they experience, and the people they meet. These journals offer the human context often missing in traditional reports or journalism. These articles represent the author’s thoughts and feelings and not necessarily those of the International Solidarity Movement.

Shlomo’s Journal: “The Magic Answer”

By Shlomo Bloom

Today I arrived at Qalandia checkpoint on my way to Jerusalem from Ramallah and got in line behind about 15 Palestinians. The line moved at a slow but steady pace until two people showed their IDs to the soldiers behind the glass and an argument in Hebrew began. It was clear the Palestinians were having trouble communicating in Hebrew so one of them asked if the soldiers spoke English. The conversation then continued in English and I was surprised to hear this Palestinian talking in an extremely assertive manner with the soldiers. He talked like an American I thought, Palestinians don’t tend to be quite as sassy with the soldiers. The problem was very clear. The American man’s relative was not being allowed through the checkpoint. Apparently the relative had an appointment in Jerusalem to get a visa to go to America, but he did not have an ID that allowed him into Jerusalem.

Basically, depending on where you live is the controlling factor on where you can travel. if you are Palestinian and do not live in “Israel” (this includes all of occupied east Jerusalem which was unilaterally annexed to Israel) you can’t go to Jerusalem. Never mind that it is Islam’s 3rd holiest city… if you live in the west bank, you cannot go there.

So, he needed an ID that says he can go to Jerusalem. And He didn’t have one.. so he can’t go there no matter what, even if he has business there.

This reminds me of a friend of mine who had to appear in court in Jerusalem a few months back. He did not have a Jerusalem ID and was not going to be allowed into Jerusalem. But if he did not appear in court, he would have been arrested. So, he had to “sneak” into Jerusalem.. walk around the wall, basically.. He had to enter illegally so he would not be arrested. It’s ridiculous.

And yeah, to get a visa to go to the US, apparently you must go to Jerusalem…

The two men were showing the soldier a piece of paper which seemed to state that the man did have an appointment today. The soldiers did not care. They refused to let him through.

“How is he supposed to get his visa if you won’t let him through ?” The American argued. The soldiers simply refused. This continued for a few minutes and then I asked the American-speaking man if he was, indeed American. He said yes. I told him “I am too, I’ll try to talk to the soldiers for you if they let me through.” He asked the soldiers to let me through and they refused.

Eventually the two men were forced to give up and go back. The American said they had been waiting two months for this appointment.

When it was my turn to show my passport to the soldiers I chastised them for not letting the two men though. “He clearly had an appointment in Jerusalem, why can’t you let him through to go to the appointment ?” I asked.

Want to guess what the answer was ?

I’ll give you a hint- this is the answer they give to any question you ask “Why did you beat this man ?” “Why is this man detained ?” “Why are you searching this little girl’s backpack ?” “What are you doing invading this family’s home ?”

As my friend thalya pointed out it is also the answer to the fallowing questions-

“Why did the NSA go trawling through millions of phone records of american citizens making domestic calls?”

“Why are an unknown number of young soldiers being held indefinitely without charge in Guantanemo?”

“Why does the Patriot act give the government the power to review records of who is checking out what books from a library?”

“Why are we planning to bomb and/or invade Iran despite the fact that they have never threatened and could never threaten the U.S. and clearly do not posess nuclear weapons?”

“Why were all the ‘intellectuals’ in NAZI Germany arrested and imprisoned?”

“Why was Tibet occupied by the Chinese?”

The answer of course is- “Security.”

Successful Land-Access Action in Beit Omar

Sunbula’s Journal: “Settler Brats and Weed Pulling”

20th May: From Jerusalem to Beit Omar, you need to change taxis three times in order to get there, partly because of two Israeli checkpoints. It is a small village outside Hebron (al-Khalil) past Bethlehem. An international presence was needed there today in order to help the farmers farm their land outside the village which is being encroached upon by an illegal settlement. The settlers have been harassing the villagers and attacking them to stop them from working on the land, in order to try and annex more of it. We were received in the house of Ibrahim Abu Marya and his family and then walked with other internationals from the Christian Peacemaker Teams and Israeli anarchists and peace activists to the fields. Army jeeps were driving past us and when we got to the land just in front of the settlement, there were soldiers gathered. I thought they were going to harass us, but they were mostly trying to stop the settler children from coming and provoking us and the villagers. The settler children, some of them probably under 10, were gathered there and cursing at us in Hebrew, shouting such nice things as “Nazis”, “sons of whores” and “Hitler needs help” and giving us middle fingers. This is one of the things I detest most about the settlers – they send their little children to attack Palestinians and peace activists because they know the army can’t and wont do anything against them. Talk about cowardice. The soldiers today seemed rather indifferent to the settler kids and seemed to have a bored “I want to go home” expression on their face, which I don’t blame them for.

We were lucky in that sense that they didn’t help the settlers today. This behavior from settlers is pretty mild compared to what goes on in Hebron city, where the faithful of Meir Kahane, Baruch Goldstein, the Kach and other such nutcases live; they are considered racist and insane even by mainstream Israeli political standards, which is saying something, but they have money and influence in the Israeli establishment and from sections of American Jewish communities, who believe they are helping to settle the land of Greater Israel.

The internationals and Israelis helped pull weeds from the land and just stay there to prevent the settlers from attacking. The army is more likely to restrain them, in fact much more likely, when there are internationals present, which is why the presence of international solidarity activists is so important and why the Israelis harass people at the borders whom they suspect of being activists. The army is less likely to beat and shoot Palestinians at demonstrations when there are international faces present, watching, photographing, recording, and protesting. It was fairly peaceful today overall, which is the way it should be more, especially after the large number of injuries at this Friday’s protest in Bil’in village. It was also fun, everyone was impressed by my Arabic and the village kids surrounded me and kept chatting with me about various things. They also demonstrated their ability to sing, in unison, “we shall overcome” and “we will rock you”, clearly showing their varied and eclectic taste in western music. I also learnt lots of vocabulary relating to nature and plants, which should hopefully be helpful.

I am off to Ramallah tomorrow, leaving Jerusalem, for the ISM office and the training for newly arrived people. Excited to meet people I had befriended last time and my good old first Palestinian friend, Mansour the big joker from Biddu.

The “Only Democracy in the Middle East”

By Raad

In the last week we had two decisions by the Supreme Court of the Zionist state which reveal how racist this regime is. The first one is the citizenship law which will affect thousands of Palestinian families on both sides of the Green Line and the second is the Bil’in court case.

Citizenship Law
No one (including me) would have believed that Israel would take such a crazy step as this until the last few months. There is no country in the western world that has taken such a step, even the countries where terror attacks have occured on their civilians within their borders. Isreal is the only country that uses terror attacks as an excuse for legislating an apartheid law. There is no one in the world who can ethically say that if there is someone from a racial or religious minority who took a violent action against a country’s citizens that the entire community should be collectively punished. However, this was the reason that Isreali secret services used in court, and their game they love to play talking of the security of Isreal suceeded at convincing the judges.

It is known, though, that the real issue they are concerned with is the demographic issue. The president of Supreme Court even noted that since 1993 there was just 16,000 applications submitted from Palestinians to unite families, suggesting that there is no large demographic danger. But no one mentions the reality behind this law, which is that the Israeli state is a Jewish state. There is no place for anyone who is not Jewish!

This is the only democracy in the Middle East who builds their constitution on racist principles .

However the Israeli Supreme Court wasn’t going to approve a law such as this, despite the support from the international mainstream community and their disgraceful silence, which made Israel feel supported even in such a racist step as this. The silence that the international community continues, especially after 58 years of occupation to the historical Palestine, encourages Israel to continue to refuse to take responsibility for the refugees and the massacres that happened at that time. They have fallen silent in forcing Israel to recognize the UN security council resolutions 194, 242 and 338. They have been turning away as Israel declared the “unification” of Jerusalem as a capital for Israel, formally annexing it, even though East Jerusalem is an occupied territory according to international law. To consolidate their occupation, Israel continues building settlements in the West Bank and finally the Wall, or what is so-called the “security fence”, with full Western support. All of these facts on the ground makes me not really surprised to see the Supreme Court in Israel approving one more racist law which is just one piece in a series of acts that aims to “evacuate” or “transfer” the local and the legal owners of the land from their lands by making their life and existence impossible.

An Israeli friend stated accurately, “We are living in the 21st century and we can’t do the same things that we did in the past to continue the transfer. There are more inelegant ways for that by making life impossible for people so they leave without terrifying them in the way the Haganah and other Jewish milita groups did during the so called ‘war of independence’ “.

Bil’in court case
After I talked about the citizenship law and its consequences it’s obvious that Israel will continue the big story of security .

Last Sunday May 14th , the Supreme Court in Jerusalem was discussing one more important issue – the wall case in Bil’in, a small village west of Ramallah in the West Bank. Fortunately there is no final decision yet, even after a discussion which continued untill 9:00 pm local time. From the discussion there was an important thing that was mentioned, which again amounted to more racism and discrimination under the name of security. The thing the judge said was that the reason for building the wall was to protect the Jewish citizens from terrorist attacks with no regards to if the wall is built on the green line or not and with no regard to the legal rights of the owners of the land. However, the wall in Bil’in like in many places is built to protect settlers, who according to international law have no right to be there since they “settle” in a land that is stolen by force from its legal owners.

Building the wall to protect Jewish citizens conceals a dangerous fact: Israel has started with its own unilateral plan. Its an introduction to building the wall around the main settlement blocks such as Ma’ale Adumim, Gush Azion, Alfe Menashe and Ariel. The plan calls for the settlement blocks to be annexed to Israel under the name of “security” and “protection”, again with no regards to their legal status. This will set a horrible precedent allowing for the building of the wall in any place in the West Bank for the same reasons. It’s obvious to all that this is one more way to force the people to leave their homes.

I don’t know how far they can go using these justifications, but I would like to point out that from the Palestinian side, I don’t think the Palestinians want any more hassles in their life. We know the meaning of being a refugee – living in another country as a foreigner. The people have decided that they aren’t going to leave Palestine again. On the other hand, the international community should wake up and take their responsibilities to guarantee human rights and the application of international law, and sanction Israel for making more racist laws that transfer Palestinians from their homes.

This Is Apartheid

By Rann

The Israeli Supreme Court approved a law yesterday denying West Bank and Gaza Palestinians married to Israeli Palestinians residence or citizenship in Israel. As the linked Ha’aretz editorial states, this is a disgrace. Moreover, this is yet another grounding of apartheid by the Israeli ‘justice’ system.

“… not one single Western country discriminates against some of its citizens by passing laws that apply only to them, and that impose limits only on their choice of a partner with whom they can live in their homeland.”

Yes, five out of the eleven judges voted against the law. Yes, those included both the current president of the court and his replacement. Yes, this law has been contested over and over again and the legal system allowed it to be.

But no, that does not make a bit of difference. As of now, Israeli Palestinians who just happen to fall in love with someone from the West Bank or Gaza cannot do a thing about it.

I guess it’s just one more element to add to the list:

  • Separate roads for Israelis and Palestinians in the West Bank (and Gaza pre-disengagement) – see Road Networks in the legend here.
  • Different ID cards, giving different privileges (see here).
  • Massive discrimination on access to water (see here).
  • Israeli Palestinian districts inside Israel get far less funding for schools, health and other services than Jewish areas (see here).
  • Israelis can move around…see here.

And so on and so forth…

The country I was born in is a racial pseudo-democracy. That makes me sad and extremely angry. So many of the comments on the Ha’aretz article linked above are sickeningly racist: “Arabs commit horrible acts of terror and behave like animals, and they expect equal rights?!?”

You see? They are animals, they are terrorists. All of them. Sound familiar?

Therein lies the essence of racism: generalization. This law is fundamentally racist in that in it punishes enormous numbers of innocents for the actions of the very very few.

¡YA BASTA!

The Double Standards of the Israeli Army

“I Am Not a Good Jew”: Israeli Soldier Brutality and Incompetence
An editorial by a human rights worker in Hebron


Israeli settler children throw rocks while soldier does nothing

Yesterday I went to the demonstration in Bil’in which started out fun and happy, with people singing songs and generally having a good time as we usually do at these demonstrations.

Upon confronting the soldiers there was some pushing and shoving, some sound bombs were tossed into the crowd by soldiers, and soon the soldiers started firing rubber coated metal bullets without provocation. Two ISM activists were hit in the head with rubber bullets, one seriously. He suffered a brain hemorrhage but doctors say he is going to be okay. The other ISM activist required stitches.

So, this is what happens at demonstrations. This is how the soldiers react. Are you ready to learn about what happens when soldiers are put in a situation where they are supposed to control violent Israeli settlers? Ok here we go!

Today in Tel Rumeida, a fellow ISM volunteer and I were walking a Palestinian child home. In order to reach his home, he has to pass by the Tel Rumeida settlement where settler children and teenagers were standing around, waiting for him to pass so they could throw rocks at him. This happens on a daily basis, so we are prepared.

We accompanied him so that, hopefully, the rocks would hit us and not the child. I had a video camera ready to record the rock throwing. We walked up the hill and, predictably the kids started throwing rocks. There were three soldiers standing around who — instead of controlling the children — came after me.

They asked me to stop filming, I said no. They demanded that I give them the camera, I refused. Then, as the settler children were throwing rocks and me, my fellow ISMer and the Palestinian child, the three soldiers tried to take the camera from me. They were unsuccessful because they were fat and they have not studied Kung Fu.

While my fellow ISMer was trying to get the soldiers to control the kids, a teenaged settler girl said “Jews do not throw rocks, Arabs throw rocks,” and she was standing in front a bunch of settler children who were throwing rocks at us!

At this point more soldiers arrived. I asked them to control the settler children so the Palestinian child could go home. They told me they couldn’t control the children. I told them, “All it would take to control these kids is some tear gas or a sound bomb, or, you know, how about some rubber bullets or live ammunition like you shoot at Palestinian kids who throw rocks?”

They kept covering the lens of my camera with their hand and I kept avoiding them. At one point three soldiers and a bunch of kids cornered me. The soldiers tried to take my camera, and the kids hit and kicked me. When I used my arms to block their attacks, the settler girls who were attacking screamed at me “don’t touch me, you fucking pedophile, you’re just filming so you can go home and masturbate to your porno.” and “The Arabs will kill you if you don’t watch out, just like they kill the Jews.” I said “I am a Jew and they don’t kill me.” A teenaged settler girl yelled back “You are not a good Jew!”

Eventually, I decided it would be better off if I went up to the apartment to film. That way I would not get attacked. A soldier saw me retreating, and tried to take my camera again. He was unsuccessful. I began filming from the second floor balcony of the apartment building. I caught the soldiers and settlers attacking members of TIPH (Temporary International Presence in Hebron). As soon as the settlers saw me filming, they started throwing rocks at me again and yelling they hope the Arabs kill us.

In my opinion, if these people want to get good at throwing rocks, they ought to take lessons from the Palestinians, because they couldn’t hit a fucking elephant if it was standing in front of them. Eventually I went into the apartment to film from the window so I would not have to dodge rocks. The police finally arrived and the situation died down.

So, this is the irony of the situation. Palestinians and internationals peacefully demonstrate and get shot with rubber bullets. Israeli settler children throw rocks and hit and kick people and the soldiers refuse to stop them and instead attack the internationals.

Later in the day I was down on Shuhada street with another ISMer and settler children began throwing rocks at us again. The soldiers made a halfhearted attempt to control them but gave up. I called the police. The children kept throwing rocks and tried to prevent a Palestinian family from passing. I went over to where the family was and attempted to escort them past. The kids kept throwing rocks and the soldiers kept doing nothing. After I made a second call to the police, they finally showed up and got the children under control. I asked the police officer to remain there to control the children. He told me I should leave if I didn’t want to be attacked. Fortunately though, he stayed and got the children under control. After about 20 minutes, he left and the children began throwing rocks again.

So, this is Tel Rumeida during Shabbat, the Jewish holy day, and the Jews here act like fucking animals. I wonder, what would Moses do if a Palestinian child was walking past him. Would he throw rocks? Are Jews obligated under Jewish law to throw rocks at Palestinians? I feel like I am obligated under human law to protect anyone from attacks from these fucking religious extremists.

Oh, and by the way, while I’m still pissed off, I should write about the fact that Palestinians here are suffering severely from the funding cuts. People are so poor. A friend of mine who works for the Palestinian Authority hasn’t been to work in 20 days because they can’t pay him and he has $30 to his name.

The international community is punishing Palestinians because they voted for Hamas and it’s turning into a tragedy. One man told me today that economically, the past 3 months has been the worst it has ever been. So please, people in the United States, if you have not written to your congressperson to vote against the so-called Palestinian “anti-terrorism act,” HR 4681 You can do this by email here.