Omar Barghouti, “Moral Arguments and Counterarguments on Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions, (BDS)” presented to the 2nd Bil’in International Nonviolent Conference, 19 April 2007. It’s in two parts, to make it easier to download.
Omar Barghouti an independent Palestinian political and cultural analyst and human rights activist. He holds an MS in Electrical Engineering from Columbia University in New York (USA). He is currently working on his doctoral dissertation in Philosophy and Ethics at Tel Aviv University. He has contributed to the books, Controversies in Subjectivity, and The New Intifada: Nonviolent Means of Resistence. Barghouti feels the solution t the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict lies in changing the government to a secular democratic state of all its citizens in historical Palestine. He support international use of boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) to bring an end to the Israeli Occupation of the Palestinian territories.
I know a number of people have started reading my journal in order to read the Palestine stuff. Thank you for reading, and I am flattered by the attention, but you are kind of in the wrong place. I only did three days out there, just visiting, and then came back. I am not (yet) an activist, and somewhere in the back of my head it’s hard not to hear an echo of John Lydon singing “A cheap holiday in other peoples misery”. If you really want to know about life out there, and want to read the journal of a genuine activist, then this is the place you want to be. That is Katie, whom I have talked about here, and whom I own a hell of a lot for inviting me to visit, putting me up and showing me around. She is many things, an artist, a cartoonist, and someone who cares about the situation to the point of ending up living out there. But to me she is also my friend, and I am very glad of that. Go back and read it from the beginning if you can. Another place you should really be reading is here which is Jonas’ journal and provides frequent updates on incidents out there.
So, if you came here to read about Palestine then time to de-friend me, as it’s back to my usual life now. But, for what it’s worth, here are a final few thoughts, and the answers to a few questions people have asked me.
Where is this all going to end?
This is a question I asked a lot of people when I was out there. Most of the time the answers I got were simply that they had no idea what would happen next and where things would end. I did get the occasional positive outlook, along the lines of what Rich said in his comment a few posts ago:
“One day maybe, there will be a nice small hotel or some self-catering apartments in Bil’in, and they will be able to take people to show them ‘where there used to be a wall’.”
Yes, maybe there will, but there’s another answer I got to the question, which looks far more plausible right now:
Palestine will be wiped out.
Melodramatic? Unfortunately it’s all too easy to see how this could happen. The west bank is already divided up into small chunks by a network of roads, settlements and checkpoints. There are areas where the Palestinians have been given autonomy, and areas where Israel is tightening it’s grip. Look at the depopulation in Tel Rumeida, and imagine that taking place everywhere that it is intolerable for the people to live. Already there are more Palestinians living abroad than there are in Palestine itself, and those that remain may be squeezed into smaller and smaller self-governing disconnected areas. “Like Indian reservations in the USA” as one person put it to me. Until eventually there is no such place as “Palestine” in any meaningful way, just a few scattered overpopulated pockets of people who once were identified as Palestinian.
What good do the internationals do?
This is one I get asked a lot – what’s the point of what the ISM does, and is there any real positive effect on the situation. To which the answer is a definite “yes”. The internationals observe and record, and report on human rights violations. A concrete example of this came during the weekend I was out there – video tape shot of soldiers using civilians as a human shield was distributed to the press, and the Israeli commander responsible was suspended. Just by having the people there makes it less likely that these incidents will occur too – it helps that someone is watching. I have also been told that the presence of internationals makes the Israeli’s less likely to use live ammunition. If you thought Bil’in was bad then imagine how it might have been had there been no TV crews, and no foreign nationals there. How restrained are troops who are happy to fire rubber bullets at children even with us present likely to be if there are only the local Palestinians present?
Sometimes, even the most unlikely of things can be helpful too. If you thought that the circus skills that so many of us seem to pick up on our way through university were pointless, then I suggest you go and read about Katie and Jonas’ checkpoint performances. Non-violent protest personified.
Ultimately the presence of the internationals is not going to bring an end to the conflict, but it helps make the lives of the people under the occupation better, and acts as a curb on some of the abuses being carried out. One person with a video camera in the right place at the right time can make a difference.
Passing through … or getting involved
I hope I haven’t given the impression over the last few sets of postings that it is difficult to go and visit Palestine. If you want to see it for yourself and are in the area then it is very easy. If you find yourself in the area then I would encourage anyone to go and do it. You don’t have to be political – go and see the tourist sights if you wish, and spend some money with the locals whilst you are out there. God knows the local economy needs it. I freely admit that I have an agenda here though – I think if people go and visit for themselves, even if they intend to avoid the political situation, then rubbing up against the reality of the occupation is going to change the way you think about the place. So if you have been diving in the Red Sea, or going on a visit to Petra or simply just happen to find yourself in Jerusalem, why not take a day or so and go take a visit to Jericho, Bethlehem, Hebron maybe? Names to conjure with, and I guarantee you will not be disappointed – and maybe you will come back with more than just a set of holiday snaps, maybe you will come back with an urge to actually go and do something about it.
If you already have the urge to go and try and help, as I know a number of you have, then get in touch with ISM. There is a London branch, and they can be found here. This year is the 40th anniversary of the occupation, and every warm body helps. All the information is up there, so I won’t repeat it here. If you want to actually do some good, then this is one way that you can.
And me?
It’s four weeks in my past now, and sometimes it feels somewhat unreal as I tell people about it. But if I go back and look at that first picture from Bil’in, there I am, in the middle of the crowd, marching with the rest of them (and almost none of you noticed that, did you?). Yes, it was real, all of it – the good bits and the awful bits. It’s a place which manages to simultaneously re-affirm your faith in human nature at the same time as it undermines it. I don’t think any other three days have had such a big effect on me – and you can probably tell that from the amount I have written about it.
Am I going back? Of course I am. Sometime later this year I am going to go out there for a lot longer, and actually get involved in what is going on rather than simply observing over a weekend. I only spent a fleeting time out there, which doesn’t do anyone any good, and I want to go out and do something to actually help. There is also a lot of other stuff I need to see as well.
As to these write-ups – I hope they have been useful to someone, mainly because the people reading it know me, and thus will have more faith in what I am saying than they might do in a media report. There are also so many news stories, and so many eyewitness accounts, that it all starts to wash over you. Which is why I made a conscious decision not to include 3rd party stories in what I wrote by and large (and I heard a number of them). This is the way I saw it, first person. If you know me then trust it because of that.
When I tell things which I have done or have happened to me, they usually have punchlines or funny conclusions somewhere. This obviously doesn’t. But it needs an ending, and having written the section above on what might happen in the future right now I am depressed as hell, so this is the one which springs to mind most readily. From 1984:
“If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face – forever.”
Israeli occupation forces used excessive violence today in Bil’in to quell the regular Friday demonstration against Israel’s Apartheid Wall, arresting 10 and injuring seven.
Palestinians were joined by international and Israeli solidarity activists after Friday prayers. Abdallah, a resident of Bil’in and member of the popular committee, explained the theme of the demo for today. He stated, “This demonstration today is dedicated to Azmi Bishara. Azmi Bishara was a Palestinian member of the Israeli parliament. Israel is accusing him of working with Hizbollah during Israel’s lost war with Lebanon last summer. Azmi is now living in Qatar because, if he returns, Israel will put him in jail for 25 years. But it is Olmert and Peretz who should be in jail.”
“From Bil’in, we are sending out support and solidarity for Azmi Bishara,” rang a chant as the demonstration started.
The demonstration left the mosque and marched towards the gate in the Apartheid Wall. Israeli soldiers and border police from the M’gav unit were already waiting for the non-violent demonstration at the destination.
Photo by Jonas
Demonstrators reached a wall of barbed wire which the occupation forces had constructed on the path. Chants of “End the Occupation” and “Tear down the wall” could be heard. One Israeli border policeman suddenly took aim and shot a Palestinian demonstrator with two rubber-coated steel bullets.
Martinez, and American activist, described the event: “I was just a few feet from Adeeb Abu Rahma when the border policeman shot him. The officer was just about 6 feet away. He took aim for Addeb’s legs and hit him twice on the inner side of his thighs. Immediately, Adeeb fell to the ground screaming. Activists immediately came to his assistance. When they lowered Adeeb’s pants to assess the injuries, I could see two fairly large holes, bleeding.”
Adeeb was taken away by medics with the Red Crescent and driven to the hospital, where he sits at this moment. The rubber-coated steel bullets, because they were shot from such a close range, entered Adeeb’s body. He just finished two operations in a Ramallah hospital where he must remain for at least two days under physician supervision. Rubber bullets are considered deadly by the Israeli army if they are shot at a distance from under 40 meters.
At this point, Israeli activists confronted the Israeli commanders to demand an explanation.
Jonathan Pollock explained, “when we tried to get details from the commander, details which he is mandated to give, the commander instead arrested us. There has been a rapid increase in violence in the last few weeks on the part of Israeli forces. This reflects a desperate attempt to break the non-violent resistance by using unwarranted military force and violence.”
Israeli activist being arrested, Photo by Jonas
In all, 6 Palestinians (Iyad, Abid, Aid, Naser, Issa, Yosef) and 4 Israelis (Jonathan, Sarah, Nir, Gur) were arrested and later released.
Israeli forces invade the village, firing tear gas, Photo by Jonas
Six other demonstrators were wounded by rubber bullets or tear gas when the border police left the site of the wall and entered the village.
Police were shooting projectile tear gas cannisters and firing rubber bullets as they progressed further into the village of Bil’in. Border police were pushing people out of the way with their rifle and throwing activists around.
Israeli forces assaulting Palestinian activist
The border police effectively chased the majority of the demonstrators back into the village by using brute force.
For more information, contact:
Abdallah, 0547-258-210
ISM Media Office, 02-297-1824, 0599-943-157
Outsmarting the Occupation in Bil’in by Martinez, 4 May 2007
For 27 months, villagers from the West Bank village of Bil’in have been non-violently resisting Israel’s Apartheid Wall and land theft. Palestinians have been joined by Israeli and international solidarity activists at Bil’in’s regular Friday demonstrations against the Wall.
Today, activists met outside of the mosque in Bil’in and started their usual march to the Wall. Chants, songs, and slogans were sung as the demonstrators marched through the heat to reach the Apartheid structure.
There were even two members of the Tel Rumedia Circus for Detained Palestinians who showed up to lighten up the atmosphere and try to squeeze some smiles from the otherwise grumpy soldiers.
The demonstrators made their way three quarters of the way to the Wall without incident. Then, up ahead in the distance, one could make out a hurdle of barbed wire, splitting the path into two sides: one path symbolized non-violent resistance, Ghandi-style; the other path symbolized violence and occupation, police state-style.
Israeli Occupation Forces on the police state side of the barbed wire aimed their guns towards the protesters, whose weapons came in the form of video cameras and peace signs and circus equipment.
In Arabic, Hebrew, and English, demonstrators yelled, “No to the Wall!” and “Don’t shoot!”
As one Palestinian demonstrator began to pull away the barbed wire which was preventing the crowd of reaching the bigger Wall behind it, Israeli forces began to fire tear gas.
Demonstrators rushed into the olive grove, hands and handkerchiefs covering eyes and mouths to prevent the suffocating gas from reaching their corneas and lungs. I myself heard rubber-coated steel bullets whizzing through olive branches. Everywhere you looked projectile tear gas cannisters were either dropping like heavy flies from the sky or screeching through the trees.
The peaceful protesters retreated after 20 minutes but regrouped further up the path. Some quick decision making was made on behalf of the Palestinian organizers and their solidarity colleagues. And soon the crowd bolted down some rugged terrain.
The goal was to reach another side of the Apartheid Wall- to possibly dismantle some parts of it, but at least to reach the Wall and cross it.
On the other side of the Wall, of course, the Israeli settlements of Mod’in Ilit and Mattityahu East are illegally constructed. These colonies, and the Apartheid Wall in this story, have been built on nearly 60% of land that has been confiscated by Israel from the Palestinian village of Bil’in. This is Apartheid at its finest.
So, through the mountain side, about 30 demonstrators, a blend of Palestinian, Israeli, and internationals, quietly hustled on over to another portion of the extensive Wall of Apartheid.
Luckily, most people had their boots and tennis shoes on because it was a rocky road. The military camera was facing the road on which the demonstrators had marched. It was not facing this covert action against a different portion of the Wall.
Once the hikers regrouped, they placed tires and branches on the barbed wire and were able to make their way across the first wall. At this point, the demonstrators were between Walls. One a wall of barbed wire and the other electrical fencing and barbed wire.
Further in the distance, Israeli forces were firing into the remaining demonstrators who stayed behind in the olive grove. Signs in Hebrew at this part of the wall read in Hebrew something like this: “If you come any closer, there is a threat of death.” So, demonstrators cut the wires and flung the posts down the rocky slope.
This small march made its way between walls towards the Occupation forces. Soldiers did not even notice the crowd until they were just meters away. When they were spotted, however, soldiers turned their fire from the olive grove and onto the pack of 30.
“Don’t shoot!” was screamed in a handful of languages. Soldiers were caught off guard. Their unsynchronized reactions proved this. Soldiers were coming right up to the fence and pointing their guns at the non-violent demonstrators.
Soldiers could not throw the tear gas over the first wall because it would have tumbled down the mountain so they threw it on the road near the jeeps.
It dissipated quickly. Mohammad Khatib from the Popular Committee walked further up the path. A soldier confronted him at a gate in the Wall. Mohammad recounted:
“The soldier was pointing his gun right at me. He was just centimeters from shooting me. I told him we were non-violent and not to shoot. You can arrest us if you want but don’t shoot. I then heard the commanding officer tell the soldier in Hebrew to stand down.”
After some negotiating with the soldiers, the Palestinians were able to get the army to agree to let the thirty demonstrators exit through the main part of the wall, without shooting them. This is the location in the Wall where, every week, demonstrators have been trying to reach.
Over the past few weeks, Occupation forces have not allowed the demonstration to reach this gate in the Wall, and have prevented the marchers from doing so by using tear gas and rubber-coated steel bullets, just like they were using today.
Two weeks ago, Israeli forces shot Irish Nobel Peace Prize winner Mariad Macguire in this same way– she was part of the demonstration that was trying to reach the gate in the Apartheid Wall. About 25 peaceful protesters were injured by demonstrators that day.
Two weeks ago, Nobel Peace prize winner shot by Israeli forces, Photo by Jonas
So, it was a small victory, but a victory nonetheless. The demonstrators outsmarted the army and crossed the wall. They walked past Israeli soldiers on the right side of the wall, firing into the mountainside. And they walked past soldiers on the left, who were still firing tear gas at the Palestinians in the olive grove.
When asked to make an official statement about TRCDP’s role at the demonstration, she said “If we can make one soldier smile at us, it’s a success because that means he is not shooting a Palestinian during that second.”
* * * * *
Bil’in is a Palestinian village that is struggling to exist. It is fighting to safeguard its land, its olive trees, its resources… its liberty.
While annexing close to 60% of Bil’in land for Israeli settlements and the construction of Israel’s separation wall, the state of Israel is strangling the village. Every day it destroys a bit more creating in an open air prison for Bil’in’s inhabitants.
Bil’in, West of Bethlehem, Jafa – the joint struggle continues by Ilan S., AATW, 29 April 2007
Bil’in
It was a “regular” Friday demonstration in Bil’in – the 116th since it started 25 months ago. As usual, we started at noon the march towards the route of the separation fence which is used to rob most of the lands of the village for the building additional district in the settler colonialist town Modi’in Ilit. The marchers – Palestinians from the village and the region, internationals, Israelis of the Anarchists Against The Wall initiative, did not choose the road that leads to the Western lands and blocked by the gate of the fence structure. Instead, we went the other direction, part of it through paths within olive groove. We out smarted the Israeli state force who were expecting us in the main road (about kilometer away) to prevent us from coming near the fence – as they did the two previous Fridays. The last few hundred meters where the far away soldiers could see us we were running.
Till the main force of the soldiers arrived, few of us already passes through the razor wire spools and the metal fence beyond on our side of the route of the fence, and stood along the electronic fence. Most of the others stood along the metal rails at the edge of the route – banging on it with stones. The state force tried to drive the intruders and the rest of us who were near by with tear gas grenades, but after they got few of them thrown back – they stopped. They tried the water canon to drive us away – but in the hot spring day it was mainly refreshing us… They tried to arrest two of the ones that were near the electronic fence – but comrades dearested them and the soldiers yielded.
In this unusual situation, the stone throwers who do not approve our nonviolent demonstration and usually disrupt it, were in position among us, but hesitated due to the “interesting” way the demonstration developed, and did not throw stones till the demonstration was declared finished and the nonviolent demonstrators started to disperse.
When part of us tried to pay a visit to the usual site of the Friday demonstration – near the gate on the road leading to the lands of the village West of the fence, the soldiers resisted us with tear gas mainly, and arrested one of the village comity as a way to press us to return to the village faster – promising to release him when we will be on the way to the village. They shoot tear gas canisters to hasten us, but when we were near the houses of the village they released the comrade.
No one was injured seriously this Friday, but many of us were wet and colored by the turquoise powder added to the water of the water cannon.
——————————– Bethlehem
Today. over a hundred demonstrators from the villages of Beit Fag’ar, Um Salamuna, Wadi An-Nis, Al- Masara, Al-Khadr, and Beit Ommar joind by internationals and Israeli activists made an attempt to block route 60 outside the settlement of Efrrat, the demonstrators carred signs against the building of the apartheid wall in the area south of Bethlehem only a large presence of border police and soldiers who waited in the area managed to keep the demonstrators from blocking the road. Doing this kind of activity in the front door of a big settlement is another step for the struggle in the area .
——————————— Jaffa
Long ago, Jaffa was annexed to the Jewish Tel Aviv municipality and settled with lot of Jewish immigrants which “diluted” the remnants of the original Palestinian residents who where not transfered out during the 1948 Nacba.
Last Friday, a few hundred Jafa residents and supporters marched through the city against a move by the municipality to transfer some 500 Arab-Israeli families out of their homes. The marchers included local government officials, a rainbow of local organizations, residents, and supporters from around the country – including activists of the anarchists against the wall. There were cries of ‘Jews and Arabs Against Home Demolitions’ and ‘This Transfer Will Not Pass’, comparing current events to the Nakba in 1948, but altogether the march was a bit subdued. As usual for Jafa protests there was no police presence in sight, to keep things calm but also in reflection of the relationship between the Arab residents and the police. At the end marchers sat in a basketball court overlooking Jaffa’s reef beach, that after years of neglect and 20 years in the planning, is now being converted into a grand park — just in time for the hundreds of new wealthy residents who are entering Ajame neighborhood. Speakers included representatives of the new popular committee established to combat the situation, residents who’s homes have become part of the struggle, and members of organizations supporting it — all were encouraged by the large turnout and hopeful about the days ahead.
At some point anarchists raised a banner with the anarchist “A” and flag but took it down on request of the organizers.
