Needed: INTERNATIONAL ANARCHIST CAMPAIGN AGAINST THE ONGOING GENOCIDE IN THE OCCUPIED PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES!
Dear friends,
My name is David and I am anarchist from Israel. There is an emergency situation in Palestine. Dozens of innocent Palestinians, women, children and old people, are killed every day in Rafah. Dozens of of houses have been destroyed already. More than thousand people were made homeless, and the killing and destruction only get worse. According to unofficial numbers, there are more than 20,000 innocent Palestinian refugees. Anarchist activists were beaten and arrested tonight. Take a solidarity action now!
We need your help! There is an emergency situation right now in the Gaza Strip and the town of Rafah, in particular, with scenes that bring to mind Israel's invasion of Jenin and Nablus in the spring of 2002. So far today, 18 Palestinians were killed, but the action continues. Last weekend, 116 homes were destroyed, making over a thousand people homeless (please see www.btselem.org ). Hundreds more are slated for destruction. The Ha'aretz daily reporter (www.haaretz.com ), Amira Hass, filing dramatic daily reports from inside Rafah, describes the scenes of people grabbing their children and whatever comes to hand and fleeing their homes, anticipating the entry of the bulldozer-tanks. There are dead people in the streets, injured people are not being taken to hospitles.
Even Yossi Sarid MP from the Yahad Party (the social-democrats, formerly called Meretz), normally a staunch defender of the Israeli Occupation Forces, described actions in Rafah as "war crimes". Many -- Israelis, internationals and Palestinians -- are desperately trying to halt the bloodshed. The Israeli women's peace movement just placed an ad in Ha'aretz calling for an immediate halt to the violence and renewal of negotiations for what they call "a peace agreement that will extract us from all the occupied territories" ("True and enduring solutions," we wrote, "are attained by negotiation, not destruction, revenge or humiliation"). Although we, anarchists from Israel, are against any kind of peace between the ruling classes, we decided to participate in the united front against the genocide in Gaza strip. This morning, forty women drove to Gaza to see if they could intervene physically, but they are being prevented from entering Gaza by the occupation army. The women have set up an encampment at the Sufa checkpoint and say they will not leave until the army stops its actions there. Other peace and human rights organizations have placed newspaper ads, and many are organizing a larger delegation to join the women on Friday, in which a big demonstration will take place.
In addition, the ruling of Israel's High Court of Justice allows the IDF to continue its mass house demolitions in Rafah, and gives the IDF full discretion as to when to allow a court hearing prior to demolition. In issuing this ruling, the Court has shirked its obligation to balance security considerations with the rights of Palestinian civilians who are not involved in the hostilities. When addressing events in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the Court consistently disregards its obligations regarding human rights and international law, and uncritically adopts the position of the security establishment. Since the beginning of the Intifada, the IDF has demolished some 1,800 homes in the Rafah Refugee Camp. Since the beginning of 2004 alone, 284 homes have been demolished in Rafah, leaving 2,185 Palestinians homeless. House demolition on such a massive scale cannot be justified as "urgent military need."
Amnesty International is launching a report today entitled Israel and the Occupied Territories: Under the rubble: House demolition and destruction of land and property. In this report, the organization analyses the main patterns and trends of forced eviction, house demolition and destruction of property by the Israeli army and security forces in Israel and in the Occupied Territories in the light of international human rights and humanitarian law.
You can find the report as well as a web action on AI's website:
The report: http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/engmde150332004
Press release: http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGMDE150502004
Stop destruction of homes and land by Israeli army - take action! http://web.amnesty.org/pages/isr-180504-action-eng
Slideshow: http://www.amnesty.org/resources/slideshow/slideshow-detect.htm?id=isr-180504-eng
Gush Shalom, Israel's peace movement, reports:
We heard what happened in Rafah while preparing in the Gush office for the already announced Friday protest at the Gaza entrance. We couldn''t think of a more fitting reaction than sending out a call to come - once more - to the Defense Ministry for an immediate protest. On the way there, with our banners and shields, we felt rather futile compared with those on whose behalf we were going to protest: the Rafah demonstrators in the middle of whom a helicopter gunship had sent a missile wounding dozens and among the ones killed several kids...
Still, the protest of some 250 - with besides Gush Shalom a very visible (and loud) presence of the dissident reservists (Courage to Refuse) and the Anarchists - had more spirit than the mass rally some days earlier. People easily found each other in furious chanting and the blag flags were there again. Nobody was surprised when some of the young took the initiative of blocking the street. More and more left the sidewalk. Police who started coming, closed off the Kaplan road for traffic, but before they could isolate us we had started marching. Chanting while walking from the Defence ministry gate through the whole Kaplan street into Ibn Gvirol, and from there towards the Rabin Square.
Reactions of passers-by were not unfriendly, and we nearly thought that the police for once decided not to show the usual behavior on this day of shame, but then suddenly they come from nowhere diving into the crowd and singling some out for arrest. Gush Shalom spokesperson Adam Keller was the first - seven polices dragged him, forcing him face-down on the street, and from seeing how they handled his arms and legs it seemed a miracle that he afterwards was not among the three (out of eight arrested) who had to go to hospital. The others were treated no better: Matan Cohen (wounded) , Yonathan Pollack (the "recidivist" anarchist), Elad Orian, refusnik David Zonscheine, Lezer Peled (wounded), Roni Avidov, Gal Chajad (wounded).
Some thirty demonstrators came to the police station, with two of them being able to function as lawyers (adv. Micheal Sfarad, himself a refuser, and activist advocate Yael Varda). After we had seen the wounded three handcuffed but on their feet coming out of the sstation to enter an ambulance, at 11pm the message came that the other arrestees would spend the night at Abu-Kabir (the Arabic name of this prison dating back to the pre-'48 period) after which the judge would decide what to do further.
Israelis who can, please come to the court(s) Thursday morning, May 20. Six of the eight will appear before the Duty Judge in the Magistrate Court (Mishpat Hashalom) Weitzman Street where they can be expected to be heard from 9am on.Matan and Roni will appear before a judge in the Juvenile Court (Shocken building), at about the same time. We hope that all will have the support of some friends and family.
Thursday, May 20, 2004
Saturday, May 15, 2004
Israel/Tel-Aviv Second appearance of the anarcho-communist initiative in the huge peace demo: TWO STATES FOR TWO NATION - TWO STATES TOO MUCH 15/05/04
The Zionist left and center peace initiative, agree in principle to give back the territories occupied 1967... on condition they are exempted from the obligation for the 1948 refugees. This evening, they assembled people demo from all parts of the country to a huge demo. May be 200,000 who are 5% of the Israeli Jewry. The anarcho-communist initiative assembled about 25 people for distributing the leaflet appended below. Surprising was the absent of the animals rights anarchists of Ma'avak Ehad who had some animals rights action instead. We distributed all the 2000 copies of the leaflets we had, and at the end of the demo when the Zionist sang their nationalist anthem we shout "Zionism is racism".
TWO STATES FOR TWO NATION - TWO STATES TOO MUCH
If the state of Israel and the Palestinian Authority will reach a "peace" agreement, it will not result from Israeli wish for "security" to citizens and the Palestinian wish for "independence". It will be - more than any thing else, a part of configuration of international powers' interests that such concept are alien to their way of thinking. The Geneva accords, initiated by politicians and businessmen, if signed and applied as intended (two different things) will be expression of these interests, and so will be any other political agreement one can imagine. The label most appropriate for the description of the treatment of the Israeli state towards the inhabitants and citizens who are not included in the category of full rights Jews is APARTHEID: a chauvinist separation rule, which confiscate the land from the peasants, restrict the freedom of movement of people in their way to work, and even obstruct the ability of the Palestinian capitalists from developing its economy. All this, while trying to get the cooperation of the Palestinian leadership.
Some people, who regard themselves as peace activists asked themselves seriously, beyond the official answers of the left, what can be the reasons for the common policy towards the Palestinians of all Israeli governments - both from the left and the right? We claim that it is not simply the conquering of one people by the other stile of the ancient empires; nor just the expression of the belief in a undivided land of Israel drawn from the bible; neither is it stemming from the pressure of the strong lobby of the settlers' leaders, though it surely play a role too.
The apartheid rule must be seen as something that serves several powerful interests. First, it served the Israeli economy - meaning the Israeli capitalists, by supplying cheap labor power which was mainly used by the small and medium employers in the manufacturing and building businesses. "The Israeli Arabs" who were under military rule during the 1948-1966 years are serving this role and more than these, the inhabitants of the regions occupied in 1967. Only lately, as if as result of the El-Aktsa Intifada, and the massive "import" of temporary work immigrants, the free access to that work power was stopped. The big Israeli companies, profited from the 1967 occupation mainly because it opened for them a big consumer market with no competitors. The military establishment, which was always a powerful one in Israel, and its top personal enjoyed and still enjoy the ensured careers in the government and its industries after finishing the military service, have the vested interests to prolong the apartheid (and the conflict) to ensure their position and their rights. It is the interest of the United States of America, which is helped by the services given to it by the Israeli state, in the region and all over the world, since the 50s of the previous century, that Israel will stay under a permanent threat so it will continue to need its support.
* * *
A reminder: serious talks about the establishment of a Palestinian state started only 15 years ago, towards the end of the first Intifada. Nearly all of leaders of the main Zionist left and the more radical left of the present, that seems they succeeded to rewrite their history in a kind of Orwelian way, did not even imagined such an agreement. Even at the beginning of the Oslo period they still talked about autonomy. The PLO and the anti-Zionist left were talking about the establishment of a secular state of all its citizens. The Palestinian authority did not exist at all till Israel helped to establish the PLO in this role. The peace agreement of two states for two nations entered the agenda only when following the first Intifada, and the changes in the global world economy, it started to fit the interest of sections of the Israeli and US capitalist.
What such a peace means? If we continue the description of the situation in the extended Israel as apartheid, and compare it to that which existed in South Africa, we can see that PEACE means the subduing of the Intifada to a comprador Palestinian leadership that will serve Israel. PEACE like that, called often "normalization", is related to processes occurring all over the world under the label of globalization, and initiatives for regional businesses cooperation to culminate as "free trade region of all the Mediterranean countries" All over the world, agreements of such kind lead to the take over of the local economies by multi-national concerns, infringement on basic human rights, deterioration in the status and conditions of females and children, social violence and destruction of the environment.
Will such agreement and peace bring at least the cessation of violence? We do not think so: the economic hardship and gaps will increase, the refugees problem will stay un solved, and the legitimacy of international economic support given to the huge number of unemployed in the Gaza strip and parts of the West bank (as partly happened after the Oslo agreement and even lately). In such case, they will have to relay on "their" state - a small and dependent mini-state that is doubtful if it will be up to it.
States act within a system of interests which common people like us are not high on their concerns. If we want to bring about any change for the better, to decrease gaps and to stop the mutual killing, we better not behave as obedient puppets of political leaders financed by Europeans and Americans, who do not do any thing more the a democratic protest, but act instead to fell down the national partitions - and mainly resist the military forces that cause mutual and continuous slaughter.
We better not promote a political program, not that of the Geneva accords and not an alternative one. Instead, put on the agenda the demand for entirely different way of life and equality for all the inhabitants of the region. Even if we act in an independent (local) way we still have to remember that as long there are states and the capitalist system will continue, every improvement we succeed to achieve will be partial and under permanent threat. Thus, we have to see our struggle as part of the struggle carried in the whole world against the world capitalism and call for a revolutionary change based on the abolition of the class suppression, exploitation, and the building of a new society - a classless anarcho-communist one. Society in which there will not be coercion by the state, the organized violence will be abolished, the chauvinism will be non existing, and all other evils of the capitalist era will be removed.
THIS LEAFLET IS DISTRIBUTED BY ISRAELI NATIONAL TRAITORS ANARCHISTS Contact: haifa_anarchists-A-yahoo.com
NOT RULERS - NOT RULED
TWO STATES FOR TWO NATION - TWO STATES TOO MUCH
If the state of Israel and the Palestinian Authority will reach a "peace" agreement, it will not result from Israeli wish for "security" to citizens and the Palestinian wish for "independence". It will be - more than any thing else, a part of configuration of international powers' interests that such concept are alien to their way of thinking. The Geneva accords, initiated by politicians and businessmen, if signed and applied as intended (two different things) will be expression of these interests, and so will be any other political agreement one can imagine. The label most appropriate for the description of the treatment of the Israeli state towards the inhabitants and citizens who are not included in the category of full rights Jews is APARTHEID: a chauvinist separation rule, which confiscate the land from the peasants, restrict the freedom of movement of people in their way to work, and even obstruct the ability of the Palestinian capitalists from developing its economy. All this, while trying to get the cooperation of the Palestinian leadership.
Some people, who regard themselves as peace activists asked themselves seriously, beyond the official answers of the left, what can be the reasons for the common policy towards the Palestinians of all Israeli governments - both from the left and the right? We claim that it is not simply the conquering of one people by the other stile of the ancient empires; nor just the expression of the belief in a undivided land of Israel drawn from the bible; neither is it stemming from the pressure of the strong lobby of the settlers' leaders, though it surely play a role too.
The apartheid rule must be seen as something that serves several powerful interests. First, it served the Israeli economy - meaning the Israeli capitalists, by supplying cheap labor power which was mainly used by the small and medium employers in the manufacturing and building businesses. "The Israeli Arabs" who were under military rule during the 1948-1966 years are serving this role and more than these, the inhabitants of the regions occupied in 1967. Only lately, as if as result of the El-Aktsa Intifada, and the massive "import" of temporary work immigrants, the free access to that work power was stopped. The big Israeli companies, profited from the 1967 occupation mainly because it opened for them a big consumer market with no competitors. The military establishment, which was always a powerful one in Israel, and its top personal enjoyed and still enjoy the ensured careers in the government and its industries after finishing the military service, have the vested interests to prolong the apartheid (and the conflict) to ensure their position and their rights. It is the interest of the United States of America, which is helped by the services given to it by the Israeli state, in the region and all over the world, since the 50s of the previous century, that Israel will stay under a permanent threat so it will continue to need its support.
* * *
A reminder: serious talks about the establishment of a Palestinian state started only 15 years ago, towards the end of the first Intifada. Nearly all of leaders of the main Zionist left and the more radical left of the present, that seems they succeeded to rewrite their history in a kind of Orwelian way, did not even imagined such an agreement. Even at the beginning of the Oslo period they still talked about autonomy. The PLO and the anti-Zionist left were talking about the establishment of a secular state of all its citizens. The Palestinian authority did not exist at all till Israel helped to establish the PLO in this role. The peace agreement of two states for two nations entered the agenda only when following the first Intifada, and the changes in the global world economy, it started to fit the interest of sections of the Israeli and US capitalist.
What such a peace means? If we continue the description of the situation in the extended Israel as apartheid, and compare it to that which existed in South Africa, we can see that PEACE means the subduing of the Intifada to a comprador Palestinian leadership that will serve Israel. PEACE like that, called often "normalization", is related to processes occurring all over the world under the label of globalization, and initiatives for regional businesses cooperation to culminate as "free trade region of all the Mediterranean countries" All over the world, agreements of such kind lead to the take over of the local economies by multi-national concerns, infringement on basic human rights, deterioration in the status and conditions of females and children, social violence and destruction of the environment.
Will such agreement and peace bring at least the cessation of violence? We do not think so: the economic hardship and gaps will increase, the refugees problem will stay un solved, and the legitimacy of international economic support given to the huge number of unemployed in the Gaza strip and parts of the West bank (as partly happened after the Oslo agreement and even lately). In such case, they will have to relay on "their" state - a small and dependent mini-state that is doubtful if it will be up to it.
States act within a system of interests which common people like us are not high on their concerns. If we want to bring about any change for the better, to decrease gaps and to stop the mutual killing, we better not behave as obedient puppets of political leaders financed by Europeans and Americans, who do not do any thing more the a democratic protest, but act instead to fell down the national partitions - and mainly resist the military forces that cause mutual and continuous slaughter.
We better not promote a political program, not that of the Geneva accords and not an alternative one. Instead, put on the agenda the demand for entirely different way of life and equality for all the inhabitants of the region. Even if we act in an independent (local) way we still have to remember that as long there are states and the capitalist system will continue, every improvement we succeed to achieve will be partial and under permanent threat. Thus, we have to see our struggle as part of the struggle carried in the whole world against the world capitalism and call for a revolutionary change based on the abolition of the class suppression, exploitation, and the building of a new society - a classless anarcho-communist one. Society in which there will not be coercion by the state, the organized violence will be abolished, the chauvinism will be non existing, and all other evils of the capitalist era will be removed.
THIS LEAFLET IS DISTRIBUTED BY ISRAELI NATIONAL TRAITORS ANARCHISTS Contact: haifa_anarchists-A-yahoo.com
NOT RULERS - NOT RULED
Friday, May 14, 2004
Israel-Palestine, Anarchists in the "peace" demo of Saturday 14/05/04
Hey all, On Saturday, May 15, we - anarchist activists - are intending to hand out an anarchist flayer in the psuedo-peace demonstration. The flayer was designed and written by anarchists from Haifa, Tel Aviv and other places, and it reflects the only genuine, principled, opposition to the Zionist "left". You can read it in the attached PDF file. If you can come and help us, it will be great. If you have placards, black / BlackNRed flags, T-Shirts etc., go ahead! We are intending to meet there in 19:00 pm, near the monument of Saint Rabin, and hand out the flayers. It is important to raise our voice and prove that there is another way forward, a revolutionary one.
There are buses to the demo from most of Israel's cities and towns, organized by Peace Now. You can read the flayer and the details regarding the transportation in Ma'avak Ehad Forum (http://www.onestruggle.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=142 and http://www.onestruggle.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=127).
If you have questions, please contact haifa_anarchists@yahoo.com , or 054-4464787.
In Solidarity,
D.
There are buses to the demo from most of Israel's cities and towns, organized by Peace Now. You can read the flayer and the details regarding the transportation in Ma'avak Ehad Forum (http://www.onestruggle.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=142 and http://www.onestruggle.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=127).
If you have questions, please contact haifa_anarchists@yahoo.com , or 054-4464787.
In Solidarity,
D.
Thursday, May 6, 2004
Israel-Palestine, Biddu: The struggle against the wall. 06/05/04
From: Tanya reinhart* To: mashacamp@yahoogroups.com Biddu is a beautiful Palestinian village, surrounded with vines and fruit orchards, a few miles to the east of the Israeli border of 1967. In the last couple of months, the village, that has lived in peace with its Israeli neighbors even during the present Intifada, has become yet another symbol in the history of Israel/Palestine. The misfortune of this village is that its lands, as well as the lands of the other small Palestinian villages nearby, border the "Jerusalem corridor" - a sequence of Israeli neighborhoods to the North of Jerusalem. Israeli control of this land would enable territorial continuity "clean of Palestinians" from this corridor to the settlement of Givat Zeev, built deep inside the occupied West Bank, close to Ramallah. In the massive annexation project of Sharon and the Israeli army, this is the kind of land one "does not give up". For this reason, Israel is imprisoning the villagers inside a wall, and is grabbing their land. Biddu, and the ten villages around it, are allowed only one option - to sit quietly and watch as the fruit orchards that they have nourished from one generation to another, turn into the real-estate reserves of the Jerusalem corridor.
But rather than obeying, the village of Biddu united with the other nearby villages to defend their land. In the new model of popular resistance that has developed along the line of the wall in the West Bank, the whole village - men women and children - are going out to put their bodies between the bulldozers and their land. A basic principle in this form of struggle is that of non-violence. Use of arms is strictly forbidden, and there is also visible effort on the part of the communities to restrain the youth from throwing stones. A second principle of the resistance is that it is a joint struggle of Palestinians and Israelis, whose fate and future are intertwined. Like in other areas of the wall, the people of Biddu have called on the Israelis to join them. -"Raise the voice of reason, the voice of logic, above the sound of the bullets and the sound of the oppression ..." - they wrote in an open letter to the settlements and the Israeli neighborhoods around them.
Indeed, Israelis have answered the call - from the young activists against the wall**, to the neighbors from the Mevaseret Tzion neighborhood in the Jerusalem Corridor. Thirty of the latter have also joined an appeal that the villages submitted to the supreme court of Israel, against the appropriation of their land. But in the eyes of the army, this new model of Palestinians and Israelis demonstrating together is the most dangerous. In Biddu the army has already posed snipers on the roofs, used live ammunition and killed five Palestinians. Dozens of others have been wounded. Following the media coverage and the protest, the army's use of live fire has decreased, but its violence has not. On April 17, Rabbi Arik Asherman was arrested in Biddu, when he tried to protect a Palestinian child strapped on to the hood of a military jeep
In response to the violence of the army, the women of Biddu called for a quiet and small protest demonstration of women only, on Sunday, April 25th. About 30 Israeli women answered the call - women of diverse ages and from a wide array of occupations. In Biddu, we met with Palestinian women, and with women from the international organizations active in the occupied territories. A quiet protest walk started - less then a hundred women, carrying posters. There was no man in sight, nor children, who could potentially throw stones. We constituted no threat whatsoever. But for the army, this does not matter. "We will not allow this demonstration" - a voice in uniform announced. Tear gas and stun-grenades directly followed. Paralyzed where I stood, I watched a hallucinatory scene. In the midst of the fog of smoke and tear gas, there were still a few women standing, silently lifting their posters in front of the soldiers. But then, out of the fog burst warriors on horses and charged into the women holding the posters. I have seen cops on horses before, but this was a different sight. It was dead clear that their batons were meant for breaking bones. Molly Malekar, the director of the Bat-Shalom organization, ended her quiet protest against the army's violence with a broken shoulder, and a severe blow to her head.
The army blocks any route of protest. It is no longer allowed even to stand silently with posters. And this does not hold only for Palestinians. From the army's perspective, we Israelis are also given only one option - sit silently and watch as our country loses its human face. But since Israel is still, officially, a democracy, it is not permissible for the army to be the body that determines the limits of the freedom to protest. It is necessary to form an independent committee of inquiry into the army’s violence in Biddu, and to bring those responsible to justice.
For more on Biddu see Gideon Levy's article 'Fighting the fence'
Yediot Aharonot***, Tuesday, April 20, 2004; Translated from Hebrew by Netta Van Vliet
==================
* Tania was a long time anarchist activist and academian. She had a column in the Yediot Aharonot*** daily
** Mostly from the Anarcists Against The Wall initiative
*** Yediot Aharonot is the main Israeli daily - read by majority of Israelis
But rather than obeying, the village of Biddu united with the other nearby villages to defend their land. In the new model of popular resistance that has developed along the line of the wall in the West Bank, the whole village - men women and children - are going out to put their bodies between the bulldozers and their land. A basic principle in this form of struggle is that of non-violence. Use of arms is strictly forbidden, and there is also visible effort on the part of the communities to restrain the youth from throwing stones. A second principle of the resistance is that it is a joint struggle of Palestinians and Israelis, whose fate and future are intertwined. Like in other areas of the wall, the people of Biddu have called on the Israelis to join them. -"Raise the voice of reason, the voice of logic, above the sound of the bullets and the sound of the oppression ..." - they wrote in an open letter to the settlements and the Israeli neighborhoods around them.
Indeed, Israelis have answered the call - from the young activists against the wall**, to the neighbors from the Mevaseret Tzion neighborhood in the Jerusalem Corridor. Thirty of the latter have also joined an appeal that the villages submitted to the supreme court of Israel, against the appropriation of their land. But in the eyes of the army, this new model of Palestinians and Israelis demonstrating together is the most dangerous. In Biddu the army has already posed snipers on the roofs, used live ammunition and killed five Palestinians. Dozens of others have been wounded. Following the media coverage and the protest, the army's use of live fire has decreased, but its violence has not. On April 17, Rabbi Arik Asherman was arrested in Biddu, when he tried to protect a Palestinian child strapped on to the hood of a military jeep
In response to the violence of the army, the women of Biddu called for a quiet and small protest demonstration of women only, on Sunday, April 25th. About 30 Israeli women answered the call - women of diverse ages and from a wide array of occupations. In Biddu, we met with Palestinian women, and with women from the international organizations active in the occupied territories. A quiet protest walk started - less then a hundred women, carrying posters. There was no man in sight, nor children, who could potentially throw stones. We constituted no threat whatsoever. But for the army, this does not matter. "We will not allow this demonstration" - a voice in uniform announced. Tear gas and stun-grenades directly followed. Paralyzed where I stood, I watched a hallucinatory scene. In the midst of the fog of smoke and tear gas, there were still a few women standing, silently lifting their posters in front of the soldiers. But then, out of the fog burst warriors on horses and charged into the women holding the posters. I have seen cops on horses before, but this was a different sight. It was dead clear that their batons were meant for breaking bones. Molly Malekar, the director of the Bat-Shalom organization, ended her quiet protest against the army's violence with a broken shoulder, and a severe blow to her head.
The army blocks any route of protest. It is no longer allowed even to stand silently with posters. And this does not hold only for Palestinians. From the army's perspective, we Israelis are also given only one option - sit silently and watch as our country loses its human face. But since Israel is still, officially, a democracy, it is not permissible for the army to be the body that determines the limits of the freedom to protest. It is necessary to form an independent committee of inquiry into the army’s violence in Biddu, and to bring those responsible to justice.
For more on Biddu see Gideon Levy's article 'Fighting the fence'
Yediot Aharonot***, Tuesday, April 20, 2004; Translated from Hebrew by Netta Van Vliet
==================
* Tania was a long time anarchist activist and academian. She had a column in the Yediot Aharonot*** daily
** Mostly from the Anarcists Against The Wall initiative
*** Yediot Aharonot is the main Israeli daily - read by majority of Israelis
Sunday, May 2, 2004
Israel, Tel Aviv, Violence against the anarchists in the first of May rally 02/05/04
Stewards and members of the "Hanoar Haoved Vehalomed" [learning and working youth - national/Zionist socialists youth movement associated with the Labor Party] attacked the anarchists and tried to prevent them from entering the rally. Today, there was a first of May event and a rally at the Tel Aviv museum square - organized by a joint first of May comity of the "Hashomer Hatsair", "Hanoar Haoved Vehalomed", "Hadash" [the communist party front] "Tseirey Yahad" and others. Stewards and other members of the "Hanoar Haoved Vehalomed" tried to prevent from joining the assembly a group of anarchists (which included activists from the Anarchists Against The Wall initiative, the "Maavak Ehad" anarchist collective, and others). They attacked the anarchists and asked the police force on duty to keep them out. They announced that the entrance of the anarchist activists is forbidden.
The anarchist who arrived with black and redNblack flags and a flier with the heading of "The First Of May is Ours" told in advance they intend to distribute leaflets and carry their flags. At first, the police and the stewards of the "Hanoar Haoved Vehalomed" prevented their entrance. Later, after the intervention of the lawyer Gabi Lasky, the general secretary of the "Hanoar Haoved Vehalomed", and Tamar Gojanski - the ex-parliament member of Hadash, which headed the comity that organized the assembly, the entrance of the anarchists to the square was allowed.
After the anarchists enter, the stewards of the "Hanoar Haoved Vehalomed" tried again and again to confiscate the fliers in spite of repeated talks with the general secretary of the "Hanoar Haoved Vehalomed".
At the end of the rally, when the other participants of the demo started to sing Israel's national/Zionist anthem, Ha'Tikva, the anarchists seat down on the ground and shout "Zionism is Racism!" (and joined the singing of the Internationale). Participants in the demo, all of them from the Hano'ar Ha'Oved Ve'Halomed, started to beat and kick the anarchists, and tried to break the camera that documented their violent actions.
The anarchist who arrived with black and redNblack flags and a flier with the heading of "The First Of May is Ours" told in advance they intend to distribute leaflets and carry their flags. At first, the police and the stewards of the "Hanoar Haoved Vehalomed" prevented their entrance. Later, after the intervention of the lawyer Gabi Lasky, the general secretary of the "Hanoar Haoved Vehalomed", and Tamar Gojanski - the ex-parliament member of Hadash, which headed the comity that organized the assembly, the entrance of the anarchists to the square was allowed.
After the anarchists enter, the stewards of the "Hanoar Haoved Vehalomed" tried again and again to confiscate the fliers in spite of repeated talks with the general secretary of the "Hanoar Haoved Vehalomed".
At the end of the rally, when the other participants of the demo started to sing Israel's national/Zionist anthem, Ha'Tikva, the anarchists seat down on the ground and shout "Zionism is Racism!" (and joined the singing of the Internationale). Participants in the demo, all of them from the Hano'ar Ha'Oved Ve'Halomed, started to beat and kick the anarchists, and tried to break the camera that documented their violent actions.
Saturday, April 17, 2004
Israel-Palestine, Truth from the land of Israel - disparity between media reports and reality (no Israeli activist killed yet) 17/04/04
"Well-equipped Border Police units surrounded the village, and a few hundred meters from where the security forces were deployed, six or seven bulldozers plowed away areas where the fence is to be built, sometimes ruining agricultural areas." 'How not to disperse demonstrators' http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/414988.html "The separation fence is going up along a controversial route that is generating protests and acts of resistance." 'Protest is not Terrorism,' below "The security forces know how to show restraint and caution when it comes to the "hilltop youth" and they should show the same measure of restraint when it comes to civilian demonstrations at the fence." 'Protest is not Terrorism,' below
"It's become an almost daily routine. Every morning the residents of villages located on the planned route of the separation fence - from Elkana in Samaria to the outskirts of Jerusalem - wake up to the harsh metallic noise of the bulldozers. In the early morning hours the heavy machinery rumbles into the area, surrounded by security guards and army and Border Police troops." Picking Their Battles http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/415862.html -----------------------------
I.
Dear Friends,
Below, I continue my inquiry of the preceding days into media representations of the protests against expropriation of Palestinian lands, their destruction, the uprooting of olive trees by the hundreds (probably thousands), the enclosing of Palestinians into ghettos, and the rest. My inquiry has been prompted by what the average Israeli that one meets believes regarding what is happening in the OTs, and why Israelis are so ill informed. While some Israelis do not want to know, this is by no means true of all. Unfortunately, most think that they do know, even though those of us who do take the trouble and the time to learn the history of the conflict, to be part of the protests, to meet Palestinians and talk to them, to share their pain, to live with them through some of their tribulations, and to look around at what is happening to Israel as a result of what is occurring in the OTs, immediately recognize that the Israeli public is being fed a steady diet of misinformation. The media is as complicit in distributing misinformation as is the government in distributing propaganda.
Part 2 of this intro, discusses the quotations from newspapers above. Part 3 scans newspaper depictions about yesterday's protest at Biddu. Part 4 relates what I know about yesterday's events. Part 5 closes this message with 3 reports, first the Ma'ariv English depiction of yesterday's events at Biddu, then yesterday's editorial in Ha'aretz, which, I believe, rightly complains that protests are not terrorism and should not be treated as such, and finally an ISM report relating (sadly) that a 17 year old was killed at today's protest.
Lots of reading below, but I hope you will find most and perhaps all worth your while. II.
The initial two quotes above are an example of how the media (intentionally or unintentionally) mislead the public. The first one relates that the bulldozers "sometimes" ruin agricultural areas. But unless the reporter omits olive groves from "agricultural" areas, or refers mainly to cities as Abu Deis, the statement is not true. All the villages where the wall/fence has been and is being built are losing agricultural land, crops, and olive tree groves.
The second quote ("The separation fence is going up along a controversial route that is generating protests and acts of resistance.") likewise misleads by misplacing the emphasis. It's not strictly speaking the route that is controversial, but what is involved in that route, i.e., the destruction and expropriation of agricultural lands and olive tree groves. While it is true that no Palestinian would waste his/her precious time protesting if the wall/fence were being built on the 1948 armistice line, the protests are only incidentally over the route and are directly over the expropriations and destruction of Palestinian lands.
The final two quotes accurately depict the situation. No class of demonstrator except Arabs, and now also Israelis and internationals who join protests, are ever subjected to tear gas and stun bombs, not to mention rubber bullets. Even when the 'haridim' (the ultra religious), for instance, have at times used violence against the police, the police have shown restraint. The "hillside youth" could be as rowdy as they please without being shot at by the military or the police. And this precisely is as it should be. Protestors should not be shot, period. What is happening at the protests against the wall/fence is wrong and is frightening. It is frightening on at least two counts: (1) the violence against protestors places their lives in danger ; (2) the soldiers who perpetuate the violence on a civilian population are likely to become emotionally disturbed creatures. A person who becomes accustomed to using violence on the elderly, on infants, on men and women and children, is not likely to doff the habit when he/she doffs his military clothing.
And as for the final quote, yes, it has become a daily--and I may add, painful--routine for "residents of villages located on the planned route of the separation fence - from Elkana in Samaria to the outskirts of Jerusalem - [to] wake up to the harsh metallic noise of the bulldozers. In the early morning hours the heavy machinery rumbles into the area, surrounded by security guards and army and Border Police troops." It is painful for people (anyone-- you, your neighbors, I) to witness the destruction and theft of their lands and properties.
III
It took me several hours this morning to verify the information about yesterday's protest at Biddu. Today's Israeli newspapers were of no help due to the lack of uniformity in their reports. Besides, they left out too much.
The Ha'aretz report was the briefest of them all. Perhaps satisfied that it has given the subject enough space the past several days, Ha'aretz devotes but a few lines to the event, and even these at the end of a report about a 19 year old who was killed in Rafa yesterday. The report ends with Biddu, relating that among 20 injured yesterday at the protest, 4 were Israelis, that 100s of Palestinians and 10s of Israelis and Internationals participated in the protest against the fence's alignment, and that there was a general strike in the village.
Ma'ariv-on-line relates in its English edition that 26 were injured in the protest at Biddu, that 1,500 had participated in the "highest turn out to date," and that 10 protestors had been arrested. The Ma'ariv Hebrew on-line agrees with the numbers of protestors and injured, but adds one to those arrested. The Hebrew additionally adds 2 paragraphs and a picture omitted from the English. The picture is of a Palestinian youngster (hard to determine his age) sitting on the hood of a border-police jeep (the word "police" is clearly printed on the jeep of the kind used by the border police). Now, the border police don't just let Palestinian kids sit on their jeeps! To anyone who knows the situation, the kid was in trouble, but for the reader who believes everything that he/she reads in the media, the youngster might just have decided to take a rest at the invitation of the kind police, except the pained expression on his face would suggest otherwise. Two paragraphs relate the details associated with the picture: the first paragraph as told by a Palestinian, the 2nd paragraph as told by a Military spokesperson (most Israeli readers believe Israeli sources, and discount Palestinian ones). The Palestinian relates that a 12 year old had been detained, that he was tied to the front of a police jeep for long hours as a human shield to protect the security personnel from rock-throwing kids. According to this source, the boy was detained at noon and not released until almost 10:00 PM. The military spokesperson denies it all, declaring the preceding to be "an out and out lie." This source insists that the boy was a 15 year old youth, who was standing near the jeep while being questioned, and whose hands were tied, as is normative for detainees. No Palestinian, the spokesperson declares, was tied to the jeep! (I've heard differently from an eminently reliable source, but more of that in the ensuing.) Remember, the kid in the picture is sitting on the hood of the jeep; in the picture his hands are not tied.
Ynet (the Yedioth Ahronoth online) states that there were 300 protestors, 46 of whom were injured; of them 21 required medical treatment. The injuries resulted from inhalation of tear gas and from rubber bullets. According to an army spokesperson, the protestors on these occasions consist of rioters who disturb work by throwing rocks. The military spokesperson says that yesterday hardly any shooting of rubber bullets occurred, that primarily tear gas was used. But according to one Israeli protestor injured by a rubber bullet, the military went to extremes in the use both of the gas and the bullets. Ynet also reports that among the injured were a three year old and a four year old, who were overcome by tear gas when the canister landed on the porch of their home. Ynet further informs that 8 protestors were detained (4 Israelis, 2 Palestinians, and 2 internationals). One protestor supposedly attempted to stab a border police with a pair of scissors taken from the vest of an Israeli army medic.
So much for Israeli newspapers. I found no reports in the 7 online foreign English language newspapers that I checked out (Wash Post, NY Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Toronto Times, Guardian, Independent, and Herald Tribune).
IV
Now let me tell you a little about yesterday at Biddu, as I experienced it and as related to me by reliable sources who were also there.
Protests against the destruction of Palestinian land and expropriations of property have taken a different turn from the protests arranged by a given anti-occupation organization (e.g., Ta'ayush, Gush Shalom, etc.). When an organization arranges an affair, activists come as a group, either by buses or by caravans of cars clearly marked and in procession. Yesterday, except for the Rabbis for Human Rights, who brought a mini-bus full of participants, others came individually. Ta'ayush did send out emails asking people to come. But basically, these recent popular protests are an individual thing. Except for the Anarchists, who have undertaken to be on hand as much as possible, one comes if one can, and gets there on his/her own. I learned from a phone call the evening before that the next morning several people were meeting at the central bus station, and that we (spouse and I) could join. Since I have never been to Biddu, I welcomed the opportunity to go with others who know how to get there. We took a bus to the depot in Tel Aviv, and from there a bus to Jerusalem, debussing at Mivatseret Zion. We walked through the community to its end, then through olive groves, walked up a hill, arriving at the village of Beit Surik, where a Palestinian mini bus met us and took us the rest of the way into Biddu. We arrived at around 11:00 and spent about an hour outside the Municipal hall waiting for others to come. I would guess that in the end there were probably between 300-500 Palestinians, Israelis, and internationals. But this is a rough guess.
While we were waiting, I had the opportunity to speak with others, including Palestinians. One Palestinian gentleman who was waiting with his small son (perhaps 5-6 years old), pointed to me and to other Israelis and said, "You see, there are good Israelis, too. Not all are bad." Then he explained to me that the only Israelis the children see and experience are soldiers, and he did not want his son to grow up hating Israelis because of what the soldiers do.
When the march finally began, everyone lined up orderly. Israelis were asked to head the march, so that the soldiers would know that Israelis were also present, and perhaps would not shoot. Palestinians chased away children and teenagers (the shabab), who were told to stay away. The organizers did not want rock throwing, and it is the kids that normally do it. This was to be an absolutely non-violent demonstration (according to some Anarchists, non-violence is normative for them, but not for the military). We continued to march in orderly procession. The Palestinians, as well as some Israelis and internationals loudly chanted various slogans as we marched. I admit that I paid no attention to what was said. I knew that all no matter how courageous everyone is and however great the slogans sound, the minute that the gas and bullets fly, we all run for cover. As we neared the edge of the village, Israelis were again requested to go ahead. I obeyed. Somehow or other, spouse, who'd pleaded with me to stay close to him, didn't notice that we'd parted, and was elsewhere, but exactly where in the procession, I don't know.
Without realizing it, I had gotten ahead of the procession which had stopped. I was up front nearly alone, facing the soldiers. I mean, this was not bravery or anything of the sort, I'd just kept on walking unaware that the rest of the procession had stopped. The only thing in front of me apart from soldiers (border police?) were media photographers. It took a minute for me to realize that I was standing about 15 meters from the soldiers and that all the rest of the procession had stopped about 10 meters in back of me. There were media photographers in front, facing the procession and taking pictures, but were not standing between me and the soldiers. When I understood the situation, I raised my hands to show that I was harmless, but didn't move back. I was curious to see what was going to happen. I stood there, hands raise, without moving, for about 5 minutes. One Israeli (probably from the Anarchists) was using a megaphone to plead with the soldiers not to shoot, not to use violence, explaining that this was a peaceful demonstration, and that we intended no harm. The soldiers/border police used megaphones to shout at us to go back, to get out, and to declare our demonstration illegal. The megaphone discussion went on for several minutes--3? 5? 8 minutes? All this was taking place, mind you, at one end of the village. The barrier that the soldiers had erected and were standing at was parallel with the last houses of the village at that end. Subsequent military violence was in the village itself and on its outskirts where the bulldozers were.
The Israeli with the megaphone was still pleading with the military not to use violence, to let us peacefully demonstrate, when without warning all hell broke loose. The tear gas started flying. I had barely time to get a kerchief round my nose and mouth, but not to remove my glasses, which trapped the tear gas inside, momentarily blinding me. Fortunately, spouse came to the rescue and lead me out of the gas. For the next several minutes or half hour the military continued to shoot tear gas nearly nonstop. There had been absolutely no provocation on the part of the demonstrators. Nor was anyone threatening the soldiers. But after the tear gas began, Palestinians began burning tires, and the shabab began slinging rocks, or at least I presume they did, since I saw them coming on the run, some with slingshots. I personally did not see rock throwing. But one thing I do know 100%: if there was rock throwing, it was precipitated by the military violence. During the day I saw the ambulance several times rushing to a call.
The tear gas attacks blew organization to the wind. People scattered in different directions trying to escape that acrid stuff. We remained mainly so as not to leave the Palestinians to face this alone. But from then on, spouse and I had no definite purpose, that is to say, no one told us where to go or what to do. Many people just seemed to be walking around aimlessly. Spouse and I spent most of the next several hours running periodically away from tear gas. The military was everywhere--on hills around the village and in the streets of the village. In addition to the tear gas, we heard explosions, but couldn't tell whether these were stun bombs or rubber bullets. At one point, my 76 year old other-half, I, and a 29 year old female visitor to Israel/Palestine, found ourselves alone in an alley. We were relaxing for a moment, during a lull in the tear gas, sitting on a low fence. Suddenly a group of about 6 border police dashed into the alley towards us. We shouted to them in Hebrew to leave us alone. Amazingly, they stopped, peered at us, and backed out without firing tear gas or rubber bullets at us. During the few minutes that we sat there, our young companion asked how it was that soldiers shot when a Rabbi was present? Her mother had been active in S. Africa against apartheid. There, she related, the police never dared to shoot or use violence when whites were among the demonstrators, and most certainly never when a cleric was present. The situation here appears to be different. If the incident that you will shortly hear is typical, then it would seem that the Israeli soldier has no more respect for activist clergy than for activist laypersons.
At the outset of the activity at Biddu, I had been given a list with the names of Israelis participating and the details about each we'd need for each if any of us were arrested. The list had been given to me for safekeeping, because it had been decided that I was the least likely to be arrested. Don't know why. Age? Maybe. So when arrests began, I was sought out for the necessary information. I learned that 4 persons had been detained. There were more later. Then, about 3:00 PM, while several of us were wondering what to do, a friend asked spouse and myself to accompany him to the police station in Givath Ze'ev to see what was happening to his cousin who'd been detained. Sure, we said. He went off to where bulldozers were working to tell others with whom he'd been that he'd be away for awhile. While we were waiting for him to return, a Palestinian ran up to us and said that a 10 year old boy was being beaten by the soldiers, and pleaded with us to go rescue him. A number of others jumped to the job, and there was already quite a gathering down where the youngster was. We therefore did not go (although I must admit that I felt uncomfortable about leaving a 10 year old without trying to rescue him), continuing to wait for our friend to return instead. Meanwhile, the lawyer had phoned and had asked me to pick up an x-ray at the local clinic. After waiting another 10 or so minutes, we finally left for the clinic; with x-ray in hand we took a local minibus to the local road block, where we took another vehicle to Givat Ze'ev, and from there a 3rd one to the police station. Luckily, the station is built around a courtyard to which the rooms open up. I walked gingerly into the courtyard trying to be as inconspicuous as possible. Fortunately, one of the detainees was standing by an open door. I managed to talk to her for about 5 minutes before a policeman spotted us and chased me off. Because there was nothing further that we could accomplish there, and since I had most of the information we'd wanted (how many had been detained and who), we began our journey home where we arrived at around 6:30 PM, some 11 hours after we'd left. As usual, my feelings are mixed upon return. We arrive home to 'normality,' Palestinians stay stuck in the muck.
Before ending, I want to return to the youngster who in the picture is sitting on the hood of the jeep; he apparently is also the boy that was beaten. While we had been at the police station, someone phoned me and asked me to verify the shocking news that Rabbi Arik Asherman was being held as a human shield. I phoned Arik, but he did not answer, and I was unable to get hold of anyone else who could ascertain the truth. It was unbelievably appalling, if true. As it turns out, events were even yet worse. Successive attempts to talk to Arik failed. Finally, upon returning home, I phoned his home, and learned that he'd been arrested. Only this morning after speaking to him did I get the full details.
Arik been among those who'd gone to help the boy, and though he'd not seen the beating, he'd found the 12 year old youngster strapped to a jeep, being used as a human shield to curtail rock throwers. Arik and two others, while trying to convince the soldiers to let the child go, while telling them that the practice of using human shields was illegal, were themselves detained and made to stand in front the jeeps. They were not strapped to the jeeps, nor were they told in so many words that they were being used as human shields, but for all practical purposes, they were for the next 2-3 hours. During this time, Arik was butted in the face by the helmeted head of a border police. When I spoke to Arik this morning, he was coming out of the doctors office. In addition to suffering a cut near his nose, he had pain in his shoulder. The child was eventually released, but Arik and the other 2 men were taken to the Givat Ze'v police station. Arik and an international were released around midnight, but the third man, a Palestinian was sent to Offer prison, where he remained this morning (if letter writing is required to release him, I'll inform you). Arik said that he'd been charged with so many offences that he couldn't remember them all. One of the offences is so inconceivable from Arik that it would be laughable if the situation were not so tragic: he was charged with spouting foul language at the soldiers.
[Here is Arik's press release, just now came into my inbox, forwarded by The Other Israel; the Hebrew version and the picture can be had from me upon request]
This is our press release regarding yesterday's events. I am working on a longer and more detailed account. Shabbat Shalom Arik
P.S. We are looking for hosts for Shabbat dinner for members of a group from the Episcopalian Archdiocese of Massachusetts for next Friday night.
Child Used as Human Shield after Beating Attached a picture of the child photographed by G.M. and The Alternative Information Center
Four arrestees, including a 12 year old boy, RHR Executive Director Rabbi Arik Ascherman, an additional Palestinian and ISM activist, were used as human shields in Bido on Thursday. After local Palestinians and Israeli activists saw a young boy being beaten by border police, the boy's mother sent a Palestinian man to try and help him and Rabbi Ascherman also approached the police. Both were arrested, along with a Swedish ISM activist.
The boy, crying, shaking from fear and eventually cold, was sat on the hood of a jeep and tied to the bars protecting the glass. The other three arrestees were bound and placed in front of a second jeep. After the arrests, local Palestinians began throwing stones, a number of them hitting the jeeps. The unit commander was Shahar Yitzhaki
Rabbi Ascherman repeatedly requested over the next few hours that they not be used as human shields, that the boy receive medical attention and that the officers identify themselves. He also asked to lend his coat to the child and to stand in front of the child to protect him from stones. All these requests were met with physical and verbal threats, orders to "shut up," and/or derision. The division commander, "Benny," also visited the site during these events. Rabbi Ascherman also directed his requests to him. Rabbi Ascherman was eventually told that the boy had been checked by a medic before Rabbi Ascherman was arrested.
Rabbi Ascherman was seized by his throat and head butted by Yitzhaki upon arrest. The arrestees were moved from the scene after several hours, but kept outside. The child was allowed to go home around 18:30. By this time, the adults were also shaking from cold and sharing Rabbi Ascherman's coat. They were released, but Yitzhaki "rearrested" them and took them to the Givat Zeev Police station. There, after continuing to be held outside, Rabbi Ascherman convinced the attending officers to allow them to sit inside. The Palestinian was taken to Ofer, while Ascherman and the ISM activist were conditionally released late that night.
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Well, ladies and gentlemen, there you have the disparity between media reports and reality. I must admit that I believe Arik implicitly. But the greater part of the Israeli public will never know his story, will never know about the violence that the military and border police employ, will never know what their sons, husbands, brothers, uncles (and some sisters, aunts, etc) are capable of, will never know what they do and how. Then they wonder why so many Israeli men are violent! Imagine how much worse it will be as time goes on. Most Israeli parents still raise their children to be decent human beings. But then they send them to the military, which teaches them (with the government's blessing) to be beasts! Heaven help us.
Dorothy
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Ma'ariv Friday, April 16, 2004 12:11 PM Israel Time
http://www.maarivintl.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=article&articleID=6032
Hebrew: http://www.maariv.co.il/channels/1/ART/689/921.html
Clashes during anti-barrier protests escalate
One activist charged: Police fired huge amounts of tear gas at us. 26 suffered injuries. 1500 participated in Bidu protest - highest turnout to date. Marwan Atamna and Uri Glikman"They fired tear gas at us out of all proportion", a left wing activist described the confrontation in another day of demonstrations against the security barrier outside the Palestinian village of Bidu. The Palestinians reported that 26 people sustained injuries, five of them with medium wounds. Ten people were arrested. 1,500 protestors took part in the largest demonstration since the protests against the barrier began. Together with them were Israeli leftists and activists from foreign countries. During the first part of the demonstration a number of Palestine Legislative Council members were also present. The demonstrators claim that IDF forces fired tear gas and rubber bullets at them.
Raz, a 23 year-old Israeli activist, told Maariv Online, "We were on our way out of the village. A Border Guard unit was positioned at the houses on the perimeter. As we got relatively close to them, they began firing teargas madly at us in unbelievable quantities! Right at us!". During the demonstration two wounded Palestinians were taken to hospital in Ramallah with moderate injuries. Doctors at the local Bidu clinic said that many of the injured they treated had been clubbed by the police. Ten demonstrators were arrested during the clashes- four Israelis including Rabbi Arik Asherman from the Guardians of the Law organization; three leftist foreign nationals, and three Palestinians. (2004-04-15 18:39:17.0)
[ynet write up of the same protest: http://www.ynet.co.il/Ext/Comp/ArticleLayout/CdaArticlePrintPreview/1,2506,L-2903149,00.html]
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Ha'aretz Editorial Thursday, April 15, 2004
Protest is not terrorism
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/415532.html
Hebrew: http://www.haaretz.co.il/hasite/pages/ShArtPE.jhtml?itemNo=415586&contrassID=2&subContrassID=3&sbSubContrassID=0 [title of the Hebrew is The Anarchists should not be doomed to die (Ha anarchistim ainam bnei mavet)]
The separation fence is going up along a controversial route that is generating protests and acts of resistance. In addition to the protests of those directly harmed by the fence - the Palestinians whose lands were expropriated for it and whose movement has been curtailed or limited - there are also groups of Israelis and foreigners protesting against it in solidarity with the Palestinians.
The protests are not uniform in their intensity, and range from demonstrations where protest slogans - including some that are blunt and provocative - are shouted, all the way to attempts to shake the fence physically and break through its gates. There have been incidents where protesters damaged construction vehicles, or blocked their way and when clashes between the protesters and security officials turned into active physical resistance, there have been arrests. In many cases, protesters threw stones and used slingshots to hurl stones at security forces and in one case, at Beit Lakiya last month, masked men among the local protesters fired shots, say the police.
The security forces respond, with tear gas and stun grenades, shots fired in the air, all the way to aiming and shooting rubber-coated bullets, sometimes at a close range that causes many casualties. In one clash near the village of Biddu, three Palestinians were killed and some 50 wounded. The IDF regards the fence and its surroundings as a military installation and is very strict about halting any attempt to damage it. In addition to the conscripts and Border Police operating in the area of the fence, private security firms have been hired.
In December 2003, an activist from Anarchists Against the Wall was wounded in the leg and another hit in the eye. That group, which has dozens of activists, is one of the most vocal and consistent in its protests against the barrier. Their activity, which expresses general protest, is blunt and includes personal, provocative shouting at police and troops, which intensifies the clash. Many of the group's members have experienced tear gas and stun grenades and have been hit by rubber-coated bullets. They say that the security forces use exaggerated violence against them, with the deliberate intention of hurting them - and then the security forces prevent medical crews from reaching those who need treatment, says the group.
An investigative report yesterday by Haaretz reporter Arnon Regular shows the security forces are not operating with a uniform, coordinated policy for handling demonstrators. There are various forces at various levels and local commanders on the ground appreciate the severity of the situation on the ground in different ways, treating the demonstrators in ways that endanger lives. IDF forces busy with operational activity in the territories find it difficult to understand the difference between civil disobedience along the fence and armed combat with terrorist cells. The rules of engagement have not been made consistent and uniform and there are not enough means "softer" than rubber-coated bullets and shooting to disperse demonstrations. And investigations are not undertaken as required, after particularly difficult incidents.
The security forces know how to show restraint and caution when it comes to the "hilltop youth" and they should show the same measure of restraint when it comes to civilian demonstrations at the fence. The chief of staff and chief of police must coordinate a policy and match it to the circumstances of the civil disobedience. Their duty to protect the fence from demonstrators does not justify harming protesters. Apparently, the security forces have not learned the lesson from cases when demonstrators were exposed to lethal risks. Demonstrators must not be made to pay with their lives for legitimate civil protest.
"It's become an almost daily routine. Every morning the residents of villages located on the planned route of the separation fence - from Elkana in Samaria to the outskirts of Jerusalem - wake up to the harsh metallic noise of the bulldozers. In the early morning hours the heavy machinery rumbles into the area, surrounded by security guards and army and Border Police troops." Picking Their Battles http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/415862.html -----------------------------
I.
Dear Friends,
Below, I continue my inquiry of the preceding days into media representations of the protests against expropriation of Palestinian lands, their destruction, the uprooting of olive trees by the hundreds (probably thousands), the enclosing of Palestinians into ghettos, and the rest. My inquiry has been prompted by what the average Israeli that one meets believes regarding what is happening in the OTs, and why Israelis are so ill informed. While some Israelis do not want to know, this is by no means true of all. Unfortunately, most think that they do know, even though those of us who do take the trouble and the time to learn the history of the conflict, to be part of the protests, to meet Palestinians and talk to them, to share their pain, to live with them through some of their tribulations, and to look around at what is happening to Israel as a result of what is occurring in the OTs, immediately recognize that the Israeli public is being fed a steady diet of misinformation. The media is as complicit in distributing misinformation as is the government in distributing propaganda.
Part 2 of this intro, discusses the quotations from newspapers above. Part 3 scans newspaper depictions about yesterday's protest at Biddu. Part 4 relates what I know about yesterday's events. Part 5 closes this message with 3 reports, first the Ma'ariv English depiction of yesterday's events at Biddu, then yesterday's editorial in Ha'aretz, which, I believe, rightly complains that protests are not terrorism and should not be treated as such, and finally an ISM report relating (sadly) that a 17 year old was killed at today's protest.
Lots of reading below, but I hope you will find most and perhaps all worth your while. II.
The initial two quotes above are an example of how the media (intentionally or unintentionally) mislead the public. The first one relates that the bulldozers "sometimes" ruin agricultural areas. But unless the reporter omits olive groves from "agricultural" areas, or refers mainly to cities as Abu Deis, the statement is not true. All the villages where the wall/fence has been and is being built are losing agricultural land, crops, and olive tree groves.
The second quote ("The separation fence is going up along a controversial route that is generating protests and acts of resistance.") likewise misleads by misplacing the emphasis. It's not strictly speaking the route that is controversial, but what is involved in that route, i.e., the destruction and expropriation of agricultural lands and olive tree groves. While it is true that no Palestinian would waste his/her precious time protesting if the wall/fence were being built on the 1948 armistice line, the protests are only incidentally over the route and are directly over the expropriations and destruction of Palestinian lands.
The final two quotes accurately depict the situation. No class of demonstrator except Arabs, and now also Israelis and internationals who join protests, are ever subjected to tear gas and stun bombs, not to mention rubber bullets. Even when the 'haridim' (the ultra religious), for instance, have at times used violence against the police, the police have shown restraint. The "hillside youth" could be as rowdy as they please without being shot at by the military or the police. And this precisely is as it should be. Protestors should not be shot, period. What is happening at the protests against the wall/fence is wrong and is frightening. It is frightening on at least two counts: (1) the violence against protestors places their lives in danger ; (2) the soldiers who perpetuate the violence on a civilian population are likely to become emotionally disturbed creatures. A person who becomes accustomed to using violence on the elderly, on infants, on men and women and children, is not likely to doff the habit when he/she doffs his military clothing.
And as for the final quote, yes, it has become a daily--and I may add, painful--routine for "residents of villages located on the planned route of the separation fence - from Elkana in Samaria to the outskirts of Jerusalem - [to] wake up to the harsh metallic noise of the bulldozers. In the early morning hours the heavy machinery rumbles into the area, surrounded by security guards and army and Border Police troops." It is painful for people (anyone-- you, your neighbors, I) to witness the destruction and theft of their lands and properties.
III
It took me several hours this morning to verify the information about yesterday's protest at Biddu. Today's Israeli newspapers were of no help due to the lack of uniformity in their reports. Besides, they left out too much.
The Ha'aretz report was the briefest of them all. Perhaps satisfied that it has given the subject enough space the past several days, Ha'aretz devotes but a few lines to the event, and even these at the end of a report about a 19 year old who was killed in Rafa yesterday. The report ends with Biddu, relating that among 20 injured yesterday at the protest, 4 were Israelis, that 100s of Palestinians and 10s of Israelis and Internationals participated in the protest against the fence's alignment, and that there was a general strike in the village.
Ma'ariv-on-line relates in its English edition that 26 were injured in the protest at Biddu, that 1,500 had participated in the "highest turn out to date," and that 10 protestors had been arrested. The Ma'ariv Hebrew on-line agrees with the numbers of protestors and injured, but adds one to those arrested. The Hebrew additionally adds 2 paragraphs and a picture omitted from the English. The picture is of a Palestinian youngster (hard to determine his age) sitting on the hood of a border-police jeep (the word "police" is clearly printed on the jeep of the kind used by the border police). Now, the border police don't just let Palestinian kids sit on their jeeps! To anyone who knows the situation, the kid was in trouble, but for the reader who believes everything that he/she reads in the media, the youngster might just have decided to take a rest at the invitation of the kind police, except the pained expression on his face would suggest otherwise. Two paragraphs relate the details associated with the picture: the first paragraph as told by a Palestinian, the 2nd paragraph as told by a Military spokesperson (most Israeli readers believe Israeli sources, and discount Palestinian ones). The Palestinian relates that a 12 year old had been detained, that he was tied to the front of a police jeep for long hours as a human shield to protect the security personnel from rock-throwing kids. According to this source, the boy was detained at noon and not released until almost 10:00 PM. The military spokesperson denies it all, declaring the preceding to be "an out and out lie." This source insists that the boy was a 15 year old youth, who was standing near the jeep while being questioned, and whose hands were tied, as is normative for detainees. No Palestinian, the spokesperson declares, was tied to the jeep! (I've heard differently from an eminently reliable source, but more of that in the ensuing.) Remember, the kid in the picture is sitting on the hood of the jeep; in the picture his hands are not tied.
Ynet (the Yedioth Ahronoth online) states that there were 300 protestors, 46 of whom were injured; of them 21 required medical treatment. The injuries resulted from inhalation of tear gas and from rubber bullets. According to an army spokesperson, the protestors on these occasions consist of rioters who disturb work by throwing rocks. The military spokesperson says that yesterday hardly any shooting of rubber bullets occurred, that primarily tear gas was used. But according to one Israeli protestor injured by a rubber bullet, the military went to extremes in the use both of the gas and the bullets. Ynet also reports that among the injured were a three year old and a four year old, who were overcome by tear gas when the canister landed on the porch of their home. Ynet further informs that 8 protestors were detained (4 Israelis, 2 Palestinians, and 2 internationals). One protestor supposedly attempted to stab a border police with a pair of scissors taken from the vest of an Israeli army medic.
So much for Israeli newspapers. I found no reports in the 7 online foreign English language newspapers that I checked out (Wash Post, NY Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Toronto Times, Guardian, Independent, and Herald Tribune).
IV
Now let me tell you a little about yesterday at Biddu, as I experienced it and as related to me by reliable sources who were also there.
Protests against the destruction of Palestinian land and expropriations of property have taken a different turn from the protests arranged by a given anti-occupation organization (e.g., Ta'ayush, Gush Shalom, etc.). When an organization arranges an affair, activists come as a group, either by buses or by caravans of cars clearly marked and in procession. Yesterday, except for the Rabbis for Human Rights, who brought a mini-bus full of participants, others came individually. Ta'ayush did send out emails asking people to come. But basically, these recent popular protests are an individual thing. Except for the Anarchists, who have undertaken to be on hand as much as possible, one comes if one can, and gets there on his/her own. I learned from a phone call the evening before that the next morning several people were meeting at the central bus station, and that we (spouse and I) could join. Since I have never been to Biddu, I welcomed the opportunity to go with others who know how to get there. We took a bus to the depot in Tel Aviv, and from there a bus to Jerusalem, debussing at Mivatseret Zion. We walked through the community to its end, then through olive groves, walked up a hill, arriving at the village of Beit Surik, where a Palestinian mini bus met us and took us the rest of the way into Biddu. We arrived at around 11:00 and spent about an hour outside the Municipal hall waiting for others to come. I would guess that in the end there were probably between 300-500 Palestinians, Israelis, and internationals. But this is a rough guess.
While we were waiting, I had the opportunity to speak with others, including Palestinians. One Palestinian gentleman who was waiting with his small son (perhaps 5-6 years old), pointed to me and to other Israelis and said, "You see, there are good Israelis, too. Not all are bad." Then he explained to me that the only Israelis the children see and experience are soldiers, and he did not want his son to grow up hating Israelis because of what the soldiers do.
When the march finally began, everyone lined up orderly. Israelis were asked to head the march, so that the soldiers would know that Israelis were also present, and perhaps would not shoot. Palestinians chased away children and teenagers (the shabab), who were told to stay away. The organizers did not want rock throwing, and it is the kids that normally do it. This was to be an absolutely non-violent demonstration (according to some Anarchists, non-violence is normative for them, but not for the military). We continued to march in orderly procession. The Palestinians, as well as some Israelis and internationals loudly chanted various slogans as we marched. I admit that I paid no attention to what was said. I knew that all no matter how courageous everyone is and however great the slogans sound, the minute that the gas and bullets fly, we all run for cover. As we neared the edge of the village, Israelis were again requested to go ahead. I obeyed. Somehow or other, spouse, who'd pleaded with me to stay close to him, didn't notice that we'd parted, and was elsewhere, but exactly where in the procession, I don't know.
Without realizing it, I had gotten ahead of the procession which had stopped. I was up front nearly alone, facing the soldiers. I mean, this was not bravery or anything of the sort, I'd just kept on walking unaware that the rest of the procession had stopped. The only thing in front of me apart from soldiers (border police?) were media photographers. It took a minute for me to realize that I was standing about 15 meters from the soldiers and that all the rest of the procession had stopped about 10 meters in back of me. There were media photographers in front, facing the procession and taking pictures, but were not standing between me and the soldiers. When I understood the situation, I raised my hands to show that I was harmless, but didn't move back. I was curious to see what was going to happen. I stood there, hands raise, without moving, for about 5 minutes. One Israeli (probably from the Anarchists) was using a megaphone to plead with the soldiers not to shoot, not to use violence, explaining that this was a peaceful demonstration, and that we intended no harm. The soldiers/border police used megaphones to shout at us to go back, to get out, and to declare our demonstration illegal. The megaphone discussion went on for several minutes--3? 5? 8 minutes? All this was taking place, mind you, at one end of the village. The barrier that the soldiers had erected and were standing at was parallel with the last houses of the village at that end. Subsequent military violence was in the village itself and on its outskirts where the bulldozers were.
The Israeli with the megaphone was still pleading with the military not to use violence, to let us peacefully demonstrate, when without warning all hell broke loose. The tear gas started flying. I had barely time to get a kerchief round my nose and mouth, but not to remove my glasses, which trapped the tear gas inside, momentarily blinding me. Fortunately, spouse came to the rescue and lead me out of the gas. For the next several minutes or half hour the military continued to shoot tear gas nearly nonstop. There had been absolutely no provocation on the part of the demonstrators. Nor was anyone threatening the soldiers. But after the tear gas began, Palestinians began burning tires, and the shabab began slinging rocks, or at least I presume they did, since I saw them coming on the run, some with slingshots. I personally did not see rock throwing. But one thing I do know 100%: if there was rock throwing, it was precipitated by the military violence. During the day I saw the ambulance several times rushing to a call.
The tear gas attacks blew organization to the wind. People scattered in different directions trying to escape that acrid stuff. We remained mainly so as not to leave the Palestinians to face this alone. But from then on, spouse and I had no definite purpose, that is to say, no one told us where to go or what to do. Many people just seemed to be walking around aimlessly. Spouse and I spent most of the next several hours running periodically away from tear gas. The military was everywhere--on hills around the village and in the streets of the village. In addition to the tear gas, we heard explosions, but couldn't tell whether these were stun bombs or rubber bullets. At one point, my 76 year old other-half, I, and a 29 year old female visitor to Israel/Palestine, found ourselves alone in an alley. We were relaxing for a moment, during a lull in the tear gas, sitting on a low fence. Suddenly a group of about 6 border police dashed into the alley towards us. We shouted to them in Hebrew to leave us alone. Amazingly, they stopped, peered at us, and backed out without firing tear gas or rubber bullets at us. During the few minutes that we sat there, our young companion asked how it was that soldiers shot when a Rabbi was present? Her mother had been active in S. Africa against apartheid. There, she related, the police never dared to shoot or use violence when whites were among the demonstrators, and most certainly never when a cleric was present. The situation here appears to be different. If the incident that you will shortly hear is typical, then it would seem that the Israeli soldier has no more respect for activist clergy than for activist laypersons.
At the outset of the activity at Biddu, I had been given a list with the names of Israelis participating and the details about each we'd need for each if any of us were arrested. The list had been given to me for safekeeping, because it had been decided that I was the least likely to be arrested. Don't know why. Age? Maybe. So when arrests began, I was sought out for the necessary information. I learned that 4 persons had been detained. There were more later. Then, about 3:00 PM, while several of us were wondering what to do, a friend asked spouse and myself to accompany him to the police station in Givath Ze'ev to see what was happening to his cousin who'd been detained. Sure, we said. He went off to where bulldozers were working to tell others with whom he'd been that he'd be away for awhile. While we were waiting for him to return, a Palestinian ran up to us and said that a 10 year old boy was being beaten by the soldiers, and pleaded with us to go rescue him. A number of others jumped to the job, and there was already quite a gathering down where the youngster was. We therefore did not go (although I must admit that I felt uncomfortable about leaving a 10 year old without trying to rescue him), continuing to wait for our friend to return instead. Meanwhile, the lawyer had phoned and had asked me to pick up an x-ray at the local clinic. After waiting another 10 or so minutes, we finally left for the clinic; with x-ray in hand we took a local minibus to the local road block, where we took another vehicle to Givat Ze'ev, and from there a 3rd one to the police station. Luckily, the station is built around a courtyard to which the rooms open up. I walked gingerly into the courtyard trying to be as inconspicuous as possible. Fortunately, one of the detainees was standing by an open door. I managed to talk to her for about 5 minutes before a policeman spotted us and chased me off. Because there was nothing further that we could accomplish there, and since I had most of the information we'd wanted (how many had been detained and who), we began our journey home where we arrived at around 6:30 PM, some 11 hours after we'd left. As usual, my feelings are mixed upon return. We arrive home to 'normality,' Palestinians stay stuck in the muck.
Before ending, I want to return to the youngster who in the picture is sitting on the hood of the jeep; he apparently is also the boy that was beaten. While we had been at the police station, someone phoned me and asked me to verify the shocking news that Rabbi Arik Asherman was being held as a human shield. I phoned Arik, but he did not answer, and I was unable to get hold of anyone else who could ascertain the truth. It was unbelievably appalling, if true. As it turns out, events were even yet worse. Successive attempts to talk to Arik failed. Finally, upon returning home, I phoned his home, and learned that he'd been arrested. Only this morning after speaking to him did I get the full details.
Arik been among those who'd gone to help the boy, and though he'd not seen the beating, he'd found the 12 year old youngster strapped to a jeep, being used as a human shield to curtail rock throwers. Arik and two others, while trying to convince the soldiers to let the child go, while telling them that the practice of using human shields was illegal, were themselves detained and made to stand in front the jeeps. They were not strapped to the jeeps, nor were they told in so many words that they were being used as human shields, but for all practical purposes, they were for the next 2-3 hours. During this time, Arik was butted in the face by the helmeted head of a border police. When I spoke to Arik this morning, he was coming out of the doctors office. In addition to suffering a cut near his nose, he had pain in his shoulder. The child was eventually released, but Arik and the other 2 men were taken to the Givat Ze'v police station. Arik and an international were released around midnight, but the third man, a Palestinian was sent to Offer prison, where he remained this morning (if letter writing is required to release him, I'll inform you). Arik said that he'd been charged with so many offences that he couldn't remember them all. One of the offences is so inconceivable from Arik that it would be laughable if the situation were not so tragic: he was charged with spouting foul language at the soldiers.
[Here is Arik's press release, just now came into my inbox, forwarded by The Other Israel; the Hebrew version and the picture can be had from me upon request]
This is our press release regarding yesterday's events. I am working on a longer and more detailed account. Shabbat Shalom Arik
P.S. We are looking for hosts for Shabbat dinner for members of a group from the Episcopalian Archdiocese of Massachusetts for next Friday night.
Child Used as Human Shield after Beating Attached a picture of the child photographed by G.M. and The Alternative Information Center
Four arrestees, including a 12 year old boy, RHR Executive Director Rabbi Arik Ascherman, an additional Palestinian and ISM activist, were used as human shields in Bido on Thursday. After local Palestinians and Israeli activists saw a young boy being beaten by border police, the boy's mother sent a Palestinian man to try and help him and Rabbi Ascherman also approached the police. Both were arrested, along with a Swedish ISM activist.
The boy, crying, shaking from fear and eventually cold, was sat on the hood of a jeep and tied to the bars protecting the glass. The other three arrestees were bound and placed in front of a second jeep. After the arrests, local Palestinians began throwing stones, a number of them hitting the jeeps. The unit commander was Shahar Yitzhaki
Rabbi Ascherman repeatedly requested over the next few hours that they not be used as human shields, that the boy receive medical attention and that the officers identify themselves. He also asked to lend his coat to the child and to stand in front of the child to protect him from stones. All these requests were met with physical and verbal threats, orders to "shut up," and/or derision. The division commander, "Benny," also visited the site during these events. Rabbi Ascherman also directed his requests to him. Rabbi Ascherman was eventually told that the boy had been checked by a medic before Rabbi Ascherman was arrested.
Rabbi Ascherman was seized by his throat and head butted by Yitzhaki upon arrest. The arrestees were moved from the scene after several hours, but kept outside. The child was allowed to go home around 18:30. By this time, the adults were also shaking from cold and sharing Rabbi Ascherman's coat. They were released, but Yitzhaki "rearrested" them and took them to the Givat Zeev Police station. There, after continuing to be held outside, Rabbi Ascherman convinced the attending officers to allow them to sit inside. The Palestinian was taken to Ofer, while Ascherman and the ISM activist were conditionally released late that night.
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Well, ladies and gentlemen, there you have the disparity between media reports and reality. I must admit that I believe Arik implicitly. But the greater part of the Israeli public will never know his story, will never know about the violence that the military and border police employ, will never know what their sons, husbands, brothers, uncles (and some sisters, aunts, etc) are capable of, will never know what they do and how. Then they wonder why so many Israeli men are violent! Imagine how much worse it will be as time goes on. Most Israeli parents still raise their children to be decent human beings. But then they send them to the military, which teaches them (with the government's blessing) to be beasts! Heaven help us.
Dorothy
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Ma'ariv Friday, April 16, 2004 12:11 PM Israel Time
http://www.maarivintl.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=article&articleID=6032
Hebrew: http://www.maariv.co.il/channels/1/ART/689/921.html
Clashes during anti-barrier protests escalate
One activist charged: Police fired huge amounts of tear gas at us. 26 suffered injuries. 1500 participated in Bidu protest - highest turnout to date. Marwan Atamna and Uri Glikman"They fired tear gas at us out of all proportion", a left wing activist described the confrontation in another day of demonstrations against the security barrier outside the Palestinian village of Bidu. The Palestinians reported that 26 people sustained injuries, five of them with medium wounds. Ten people were arrested. 1,500 protestors took part in the largest demonstration since the protests against the barrier began. Together with them were Israeli leftists and activists from foreign countries. During the first part of the demonstration a number of Palestine Legislative Council members were also present. The demonstrators claim that IDF forces fired tear gas and rubber bullets at them.
Raz, a 23 year-old Israeli activist, told Maariv Online, "We were on our way out of the village. A Border Guard unit was positioned at the houses on the perimeter. As we got relatively close to them, they began firing teargas madly at us in unbelievable quantities! Right at us!". During the demonstration two wounded Palestinians were taken to hospital in Ramallah with moderate injuries. Doctors at the local Bidu clinic said that many of the injured they treated had been clubbed by the police. Ten demonstrators were arrested during the clashes- four Israelis including Rabbi Arik Asherman from the Guardians of the Law organization; three leftist foreign nationals, and three Palestinians. (2004-04-15 18:39:17.0)
[ynet write up of the same protest: http://www.ynet.co.il/Ext/Comp/ArticleLayout/CdaArticlePrintPreview/1,2506,L-2903149,00.html]
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Ha'aretz Editorial Thursday, April 15, 2004
Protest is not terrorism
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/415532.html
Hebrew: http://www.haaretz.co.il/hasite/pages/ShArtPE.jhtml?itemNo=415586&contrassID=2&subContrassID=3&sbSubContrassID=0 [title of the Hebrew is The Anarchists should not be doomed to die (Ha anarchistim ainam bnei mavet)]
The separation fence is going up along a controversial route that is generating protests and acts of resistance. In addition to the protests of those directly harmed by the fence - the Palestinians whose lands were expropriated for it and whose movement has been curtailed or limited - there are also groups of Israelis and foreigners protesting against it in solidarity with the Palestinians.
The protests are not uniform in their intensity, and range from demonstrations where protest slogans - including some that are blunt and provocative - are shouted, all the way to attempts to shake the fence physically and break through its gates. There have been incidents where protesters damaged construction vehicles, or blocked their way and when clashes between the protesters and security officials turned into active physical resistance, there have been arrests. In many cases, protesters threw stones and used slingshots to hurl stones at security forces and in one case, at Beit Lakiya last month, masked men among the local protesters fired shots, say the police.
The security forces respond, with tear gas and stun grenades, shots fired in the air, all the way to aiming and shooting rubber-coated bullets, sometimes at a close range that causes many casualties. In one clash near the village of Biddu, three Palestinians were killed and some 50 wounded. The IDF regards the fence and its surroundings as a military installation and is very strict about halting any attempt to damage it. In addition to the conscripts and Border Police operating in the area of the fence, private security firms have been hired.
In December 2003, an activist from Anarchists Against the Wall was wounded in the leg and another hit in the eye. That group, which has dozens of activists, is one of the most vocal and consistent in its protests against the barrier. Their activity, which expresses general protest, is blunt and includes personal, provocative shouting at police and troops, which intensifies the clash. Many of the group's members have experienced tear gas and stun grenades and have been hit by rubber-coated bullets. They say that the security forces use exaggerated violence against them, with the deliberate intention of hurting them - and then the security forces prevent medical crews from reaching those who need treatment, says the group.
An investigative report yesterday by Haaretz reporter Arnon Regular shows the security forces are not operating with a uniform, coordinated policy for handling demonstrators. There are various forces at various levels and local commanders on the ground appreciate the severity of the situation on the ground in different ways, treating the demonstrators in ways that endanger lives. IDF forces busy with operational activity in the territories find it difficult to understand the difference between civil disobedience along the fence and armed combat with terrorist cells. The rules of engagement have not been made consistent and uniform and there are not enough means "softer" than rubber-coated bullets and shooting to disperse demonstrations. And investigations are not undertaken as required, after particularly difficult incidents.
The security forces know how to show restraint and caution when it comes to the "hilltop youth" and they should show the same measure of restraint when it comes to civilian demonstrations at the fence. The chief of staff and chief of police must coordinate a policy and match it to the circumstances of the civil disobedience. Their duty to protect the fence from demonstrators does not justify harming protesters. Apparently, the security forces have not learned the lesson from cases when demonstrators were exposed to lethal risks. Demonstrators must not be made to pay with their lives for legitimate civil protest.
Thursday, April 15, 2004
Israel-Palestine, Media, Picking their battles ["The Fence War" in the Hebrew original]* 15/04/04
It's called 'the separation fence intifada' - an unarmed civil protest - but hundreds of Palestinians are getting hurt, and so are their Israeli supporters. ["The struggle against the route of the fence takes a new form: 'passive [nonviolent] civilian resistance' documented by video, with the participation of Palestinian women, old persons and children, reinforced by Israeli peace activists*. In spite of that, even these demonstrations are always ended with massive fire of the IDF [Israeli army] - from time to time in contradiction to the official instructions, and with already hundreds of wounded. The demonstrators are sure that the first Israeli [demonstrator] to be killed is going to happen soon." [The summary of the Hebrew original - I.S.]
WITH EMPTY HANDS
It's become an almost daily routine. Every morning the residents of villages located on the planned route of the separation fence - from Elkana in Samaria to the outskirts of Jerusalem - wake up to the harsh metallic noise of the bulldozers. In the early morning hours the heavy machinery rumbles into the area, surrounded by security guards and army and Border Police troops. The villagers go out to their land in full force: men and women, young and old alike. They position themselves opposite the soldiers, wave flags, sing and try to get to the giant machines or sit down on the ground in an attempt to block them. And then what? Only God knows. Some speak of December 26, 2003 as the turning point. That was the day on which an Israeli demonstrating against the fence, Gil Na'amati, was shot and wounded by Israeli soldiers at the village of Maskha, in Samaria. "What happened at Mes'ha, and the noise it created, shook up the Palestinians," says an Israeli who took part in some demonstrations. "They understood that they had to organize for a struggle against the fence and that the struggle could have an impact." Some of the interviewees term this uprising, which involves a civilian population of all ages, the "intifada of the fence," as distinct from the more familiar one of the terrorist organizations, the attacks and the armed fighters.
The Palestinian Authority has played a very small role in the events of the past few weeks. Although it was the PA that encouraged the Palestinians to protest against the fence while the international court at The Hague was discussing its legality in February, the current uprising started from below.
In some of the events, the Palestinian demonstrators are bolstered by Israelis, ranging in number from a few individuals to dozens, mainly from the Anarchists Against the Wall group, and by international peace activists. When the latter take part, they also document the events on video. It's clear, after watching hours of this footage, that the Palestinians may be reverting to the protest method of the first intifada, but the Israel Defense Forces is moving forward. Stun grenades and tear gas are often hurled at groups of elderly women or at high-school girls, and it is common to see civilians fleeing for their lives from rubber-coated steel bullets. In one case - the exception, as far as is known - soldiers used live fire against demonstrators, killing three residents of the village of Biddu, near Jerusalem; one of those killed was a boy of 11.
"There was a hitch at Bidu, a loss of control," admits a senior IDF officer. However, there are no reports of anyone having been brought to justice for the fact that three people paid with their lives for that "loss of control."
Legitimate struggle
What underlies this new, popular style of struggle, waged without the use of firearms? According to Ayid Murar, from Budrus - a village near Ben Shemen, where the route of the fence was moved toward the 1967 Green Line in the wake of the residents' protests and diplomatic pressure - the Palestinians have good reason to stick to a civil struggle.
"Our struggle is not against Jews and not against Israelis and not even against soldiers - it is against the occupation," he says. "We don't want people on either side to be killed. The occupation is a big problem, and the Palestinians can't cope with it alone. They need the help of the Arab states, of the world's governments, and in order to get it they have to adopt a method of struggle that has legitimacy in the eyes of the world. We already feel an increase in support and interest from all over the world about what is happening here. Once we were a marginal phenomenon even in the Arab press, but now we are back in the headlines."
Murar and his brother, Naim, a former employee of the Palestinian Interior Ministry, have for years maintained close ties with Israeli peace activists. They are a salient example of a new class of local leaders who are taking key positions in the forefront of the current struggle. Israel, though, looks askance at such activity. At the beginning of January the two brothers were arrested within a few days by the Shin Bet security service, on the grounds that "the intelligence material attributes terror-supporting activity to them." However, the military justice system itself rejected this. The military court at Ofer Camp released Ayid within a few days, stating: "It is out of the question for the military commander to use his authority to order a person's administrative detention [arrest without trial] only because of his activity against the fence. This is a mistaken decision that does not stem from security considerations." A month later, the military court at the Ketziot detention camp released Naim, stating that the military prosecution and the Shin Bet had misled the court by claiming he had been involved in terrorist activity and adding that protest activity against the fence does not constitute a cause for arrest.
Even though it is only at Budrus that the protests have succeeded in getting the route of the fence changed, Ayid Murar is convinced that this is the right path to follow: "We have to bring the entire Palestinian people into the struggle against the occupation - women, children, the aged - and they cannot take part in a violent struggle," he says. "But they can take part in this kind of struggle, which also contributes to the unity of our nation. We also know that a nonviolent struggle puts more pressure on the Israelis. When you have armed individuals and shooting, one Jeep with soldiers can deal with it. When the army has to deal with civilians, it has to bring in a far larger number of soldiers. After all, they can't open fire at them freely, or at least I hope not."
WHO STARTED?
Ghassan Andoni from Beit Sahour, south of Jerusalem, is one of the founders of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), the organization of volunteers that promotes nonviolent protest and seeks to internationalize the struggle against the occupation. His ideas have been gaining popularity.
"I don't agree with the view that the nonviolent protest has begun only now. It has actually existed since December 2000 and has taken the form, for example, of dismantling roadblocks by hand. However, it's true that it is now far more widespread," he says. "I'm glad it's happening, but it is still too passive, too much based on reactions. The villagers go out to protest only when the bulldozers show up and not as part of an overall perception of struggle against the occupation. The struggle should be comprehensive and not stop until the fence falls. The real test will be if every village will continue to be part of the struggle even after the fence is built. Until that happens, I can't say it is a success."
One of the leading activists in the village of Hirbata is Aziz Armani, 34, who after years of working in Israel speaks fluent Hebrew. In reaction to the contention that the current struggle has not recorded any impressive achievements, he says it has had "success here and there, though not a great success that we could flaunt. We are facing a tremendous force, while we are helpless and have nothing. Still, the main thing is that we feel we are doing something - if not for ourselves then for the coming generations. Even if we are able to get the fence moved two meters and save a few meters of our land, that will be something. I think that this struggle is giving us a great deal of strength. It doesn't belong to any organization, not to Hamas or to Fatah and not to the leadership of the PA; it belongs to the people. Each village has a council that is responsible and is scrupulous in ensuring that the demonstrations do not turn violent. We are not fighting the citizens who live in Tel Aviv - we are fighting the bulldozers."
Israelis vs. the fence
One of the major features of the struggle in its new form is the cooperation between Israelis and Palestinians. At every opportunity, the Palestinians make it clear that they are interested in furthering such cooperation because of their desire to influence public opinion in Israel, and more especially because the presence of Israelis, they hope, moderates the reactions of the soldiers. One of the Israeli activists explains that the reverse is also true: The presence of Israelis also moderates the Palestinian side.
"Our presence makes an important contribution to nonviolence," the activist says. "We push in this direction during the coordination that takes place before the demonstrations. It's true that if someone throws a stone we don't stop to preach to him, but there is always someone who will do it for us. Right away they tell him to stop. There's a feeling that they want to uphold their promise to us and not endanger us."
The IDF views the involvement of Israelis in a different light. The IDF Spokesperson's Office told Haaretz Magazine: "Unfortunately a handful of Israeli activists and foreigners who create provocations act as agitators and turn the demonstrations into violent disturbances."
One evening during the intermediate days of Pesach, I got a phone call from Yonatan Pollak, who sounded distraught. Pollak, 21, the son of the highly regarded actor Yossi Pollak, is considered the Israeli leader of the struggle against the fence (though as an anarchist, he disowns that description). Tall, charismatic, confident of his path, Pollak, despite his young age, has participated in numerous protest activities and does to the soldiers - who encounter him on an almost daily basis - what a red flag does to a bull.
"I called because within a few days there were two incidents in which Israeli demonstrators were almost killed - Itai Levinsky and me," Pollak said. "I called because if anything can stop the deterioration, it's publicity in the media. Let's leave the political aspect aside for the moment and talk about what's happening on the ground almost every day. There is a gradual but relentless escalation on the part of the army toward civilians taking part in demonstrations, which fundamentally are nonviolent. I spend a lot of time in the territories, and I've seen how riots and demonstrations are suppressed plenty of times, but what's happening here is something new. The feeling is that there are no procedures. They fire rubber bullets and throw tear gas freely, and they fire at the feet and at the head.
"Three Palestinians were already killed, at Biddu, and the day when an Israeli will be killed is approaching, too. If course, it's not worse for an Israeli to be killed than for a Palestinian, but it illustrates the escalation of the use of force. At every demonstration I talk to the soldiers via a megaphone and tell them that this is a quiet demonstration of Palestinians, Israelis and internationals - and the bullets whistle past my ears. At first we thought the cameras would deter them, then we thought the presence of Israelis would be a deterrent, but now there is nothing that deters the soldiers. I tell you: Someone is going to die out there."
Maybe it's time to stay home for a while?
Pollak: "I am a political person and I go to demonstrate. It's inconceivable that the state's response should be that I have to sit at home. Even if the army is convinced that what we are doing is a provocation - though from my point of view, of course, the provocation is the building of the fence on Palestinian land - in a democracy you can create provocations without being shot at."
Are you afraid?
"Very much. That's why I'm talking to you. But that doesn't mean we are going to stop the demonstrations. We will continue, but I don't think that's a reason for any of us to die."
Yonatan's older brother. Shai Carmeli-Pollak, a television director, has been filming the demonstrations against the fence and some of the footage documents a dramatic event in which Yonatan was the principal protagonist - the event he was referring to when he said his life was in mortal danger.
The event took place on March 29, at Bitunia, adjacent to Ramallah. Soldiers and demonstrators met on a dirt road at the entrance to the village. An army Jeep tried to move forward and a group of demonstrators, with Pollak among them, attempted to block its progress. The driver, however, accelerated and moved forward. Two of the demonstrators managed to jump aside, but Pollak, who was in the center, found himself on the hood of the Jeep.
The presence of the "hitchhiker" didn't perturb the soldiers. The Jeep kept going and even speeded up. For 50 long seconds - all of them documented on the video - the Jeep drove along with Pollak draped over the hood, grabbing at whatever he could find and holding on for dear life. A viewing of the film suggests that the vehicle was traveling between 30 and 60 kilometers an hour. It went a few dozen meters, did a U-turn and then returned to its starting point, where it slowed down, and Pollak was able to jump off.
Is driving a Jeep with a demonstrator straddling the hood - and an Israeli, at that - part of the IDF procedure for dispersing demonstrations? A senior officer says in response that "we view this event as a hitch, a serious departure. The event was investigated and the driver is being dealt with by Central Command and will face trial."
Bullet in the eye
Itai Levinsky says that he will return to the struggle after he recovers. It was Levinsky who, last December 26, saved the life of Gil Na'amati after Na'amati was shot by an IDF sniper near Maskha. While the soldiers ignored the demonstrators' pleas to summon an ambulance, Levinsky organized a quick evacuation of the bleeding Na'amati in a Palestinian car, and at the checkpoint an Israeli ambulance joined them. Na'amati lost a great deal of blood and arrived at the hospital in serious condition. The doctors told his father, Uri, the head of Eshkol Regional Council, that if the evacuation had been delayed they would probably not have been able to save his son's life.
Almost three months later, on March 12, it was Levinsky who ended up in hospital. "I went to demonstrate at Hirbata," he recalls. "The army's reaction was violent to the extreme this time. They simply fired rubber bullets like crazy, even though most of the people quickly lay down on the ground among the rocks. Naturally, when you're lying down, there's no difference whether they fire at your head or your legs, because it's all at the same height. I was standing in front and talking to the soldiers via the megaphone, to make them understand that there were Israelis there, too, which sometimes makes them calm down a little. It's scary, but what can you do?"
This time, though, the megaphone and the Hebrew weren't an insurance policy. Levinsky took a rubber bullet between his nose and his left eye.
"Suddenly I felt terrible pains around the eye and nose," he says. "My eye was injured, but luckily wasn't blown up, and the left side of my nose was completely shattered. I lay on the ground but was in total focus. A Red Crescent ambulance took me to the checkpoint, and from there I got to Tel Hashomer [Sheba Medical Center]. I was hospitalized for 10 days and had an operation on my nose, and because my vision is still pretty much of a mess I'll need eye surgery, too. The truth is that I was really lucky, because a rubber bullet that enters the eye can reach the brain. It's total chance that I'm alive. For both me and Gili it's pure luck that we weren't killed."
Film shot at the Hirbata demonstration - though the actual instant when Levinsky was wounded was not photographed - reinforces his version of events. The soldiers fire massively at dozens of people who are lying on the ground and seeking shelter amid the rocks.
"At about 6 A.M., as soon as the bulldozers started working, the villagers started to demonstrate," relates Raz Avni, 23, a former kibbutznik who now lives in Tel Aviv. "We were about six Israelis that day. The soldiers were standing in a row across from the demonstrators and there was a lot of cursing, pushing and punching, and then the soldiers suddenly pulled back quickly, turned around and started firing rubber bullets. I was next to Itai. He said through the megaphone, `This is not a violent demonstration. Don't shoot.' Suddenly he shouted. I looked at him - he was lying on the ground and his eye was bleeding. I called the Red Crescent medics, who come to every demonstration. It took them a few minutes to reach us, because the shooting continued. They put a dressing on his eye and evacuated him to the ambulance on a stretcher."
Levinsky, 20, grew up in Ramat Efal and Holon and now lives in the lower-class Hatikva neighborhood in South Tel Aviv. He did not do army service. Until recently he worked in construction. He plans to go back to the demonstrations as soon as his health permits. One day during Pesach, Uri and Gil Na'amati - whose shattered knee is still in the rehabilitation process - drove from their home in the south of the country to visit Gil's rescuer, who was afterward wounded himself.
"What is left to say?" Uri Na'amati summed up. "It's heartbreaking."
Provocateurs
As in every quarrel, here, too, the dispute revolves around the question of who started it. How does happen that demonstrations whose organizers term them nonviolent evolve into events with dozens of wounded, mainly from massive use of rubber bullets? A senior IDF officer finds it difficult to accept the pastoral descriptions of a nonviolent intifada: "I don't know of any quiet demonstration where the people stood and sang, but which ended with rubber bullets fired by us," he says. "We have set ourselves a clear line that distinguishes a demonstration from a disturbance: The moment an attempt is made to attack equipment or soldiers, it's a disturbance, and then our response ratchets up. The mission as defined for us by the political echelon is to enable construction of the fence, and as fast as possible, and if a bulldozer is burned every day the fence won't get built. The instructions to the forces in the field are clear: The first means they are allowed to use is stun grenades and tear gas. If that doesn't help, we recommend that the instigators be arrested and that a complaint against them be filed with the police, because that often disperses things. Only if we have gone through that procedure, and the soldiers are on the receiving end of stones - and from our point of view stones are a mortal danger - the next level is to fire rubber [bullets], with the authorization of a battalion commander at least, and the firing has to be aimed at someone specific, a chief instigator who we didn't succeed in arresting."
The films shot at many demonstrations show that there is a large gap between these instructions and their application in the field. Time after time the camera records massive firing by many soldiers at the same time in the general direction of demonstrators, who are sometimes dozens or hundreds of meters away. One thing is certain: The firing is not aimed at a lone "instigator." As for the stone throwing, it's difficult to decide which comes first: the stones or the rubber bullets. The impression is that things change from village to village and from event to event.
"In some cases two or three children throw stones from a distance of 100 meters, and it's obvious that this is symbolic and can't hurt anyone," says Dr. Kobi Snitz, who teaches mathematics at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, and has taken part in a number of demonstrations. "Sometimes three hours of an encounter go by without one stone being thrown, and then suddenly the soldiers lose it - they're standing out in the sun for hours, you know - and they start throwing stun and tear-gas grenades, and then all hell breaks loose. [Some] villages have a committee that tries to keep the children under control, but it's hard."
Snitz says the escalation is the result of deliberate policy - if not at the political level, then at least at the decision-making level in the army: "There are now demonstrations of hundreds and thousands of people every day. Whoever takes 10 soldiers to a site like that tells them, `No matter what happens, [demonstrators] don't get close to the bulldozers,' knows what the result will be."
What do you expect the soldiers to do - let the bulldozers be torched?
Snitz: "A properly run state understands that when there is resistance at a certain level to policy, either it heightens the violence and crushes the resistance or it sits and listens. Naturally, I think the soldiers should refuse to do what they are doing, but beyond that, every major in the field can [inform his superiors] via radio - when he's facing this number of people - that the mission he has been given is impossible to execute unless they want the whole thing to blow up. The problem is that he then ruins his chances of promotion. I often talk to the soldiers in the field and many of them say that they're there because `I have no choice,' or `What do you want me to do,' or `I know there's something wrong, but what can I do?' When senior officers describe serious events as `hitches,' they are effectively transferring responsibility to the individual soldier."
Legal battles
In the past few weeks the "intifada of the fence" has also been keeping the High Court of Justice busy. As part of the effort to play the game according to the rules of Israeli democracy, a number of villages have filed petitions to the court against the route of the fence. Most of the cases are still pending. The lawyer in the majority of the petitions is Mohammed Dahla, an Israeli citizen whose office is located in East Jerusalem.
Dahla sums up the results of the legal battle to date: "Roughly speaking, I can say that in more than 70 percent of the routes with respect to which petitions have been filed to the High Court, interim injunctions have been issued prohibiting the continuation of the work. In another 15 percent the court allowed the state to work without limitations, though noting that if the petition is accepted the state will have to restore the status quo ante and compensate residents. And in the other 15 percent of the cases, the court allowed irreversible work to be carried out."
In some cases Dahla filed the petition together with Palestinian villages and Jews from nearby communities who support the moving of the fence from the villagers' farmlands to inside the Green Line. In one such case, a joint petition was filed by residents of Beit Suriq, a village situated across a ridge from the Jerusalem suburb of Mevasseret Zion, and by 30 residents of the suburb. A far larger number of residents of Mevasseret Zion, more than 600, signed a petition supporting the moving of the fence inside the Green Line, and 50 of them joined the residents of Beit Suriq in a demonstration.
An interesting development in this case occurred when the petitioners added the names of several retired IDF generals from the Council for Peace and Security, among them Assaf Hefetz, Avraham Adan, Shaul Givoli and others, who have recently visited various parts of the fence route and reject the defense establishment's claim that the route was established with security considerations in mind. This connection between a group of security-conscious veterans and Palestinian villagers is little short of surrealistic against the backdrop of the current intifada, but has arisen due to the struggle against the route of the fence.
Last week, at the height of the army's encirclement of a house in Biddu, the residents called Dahla, who rushed to court and was able to get an interim injunction against the demolition of the house.
"This is an interesting process," he says. "It is reviving the popular uprising. Willy-nilly, the residents are getting involved in this because they are simply losing everything they have. They understand that if they don't act, they will end up living in a ghetto, without their lands or a source of livelihood. The decision on an unarmed uprising is a strategic one. We can see that in these places there is no use of firearms, not only when it comes to soldiers but also in regard to the nearby settlements or Israeli locales located across the hill. Maybe it's because of their location - these are places [whose residents] have worked a great deal with Israelis - or maybe it's because of the cooperation with the left-wingers, or maybe it's because they understand that the important war is the one for Israeli public opinion."
However, that battle is so far not succeeding. Three and a half years of intifada, and some 37 years of occupation, have made the Israeli public and its establishments blind to developments on the other side, leaving them unable or unwilling to take note of subtleties. True, the IDF doesn't view the demonstrators as armed gangs, but disperses the protesters with a force that they perceive as a way to persuade them that even nonviolent protest is useless. The media ignore the demonstrations almost totally, and because this is a daily struggle that is also dangerous, no more than dozens of Israelis are taking part in it, joined occasionally by activists from movements such as Ta'ayush [the Arab-Jewish Partnership grass-roots organization] and Gush Shalom. "The message that Israel is sending the Palestinians who are trying to protest nonviolently is that we don't want any such protest," says one Israeli who participates in the demonstrations. "It's that we prefer a violent struggle and that we are not willing to accord legitimacy to any type of resistance by them. For years we have been asking them why they don't follow the path of Mahatma Gandhi, but when they do just that we respond with rubber bullets and tear gas. What we are doing now is shooting the Palestinian peace camp."n
Olive trees and rubber bullets
"A demonstration by Palestinians against the construction [of the fence] is a loaded business with plenty of emotions - land, work, olive trees - and when Israelis, internationals and the media join in, it becomes even more complex," says a senior IDF officer who is responsible for the sector where most of the events in the past few months have taken place. "That complexity finds expression in the way we can allow ourselves to respond, morally and in terms of values, and also taking into consideration how it looks to the world and to Israeli society."
The turning point, the officer says, was the shooting of Gil Na'amati. "That event was investigated by the chief of staff, and afterward clear instructions were issued. The most significant thing that changes when Israelis are in the field is the rules of engagement [for opening fire]. We try to make use of a great deal of police intervention and to address the subject through the courts. I've heard that the Palestinians call it a 'peaceful demonstration,' but it seems to me we have a conceptual gap here. When the Palestinians throw stones, they regard it as a quiet demonstration. And I'm not talking about one stone. It's important to point out that at one demonstration, in Beit Lakiya, there was also shooting; we arrested the squad that did the shooting, though it's true that this was the only case.
"I don't say there are no hitches. A soldier is out there for hours, being cursed. Not all of them are icemen and sometimes even commanding officers lose control. There is friction, it's not sterile. As part of the verbal friction our people also say things they shouldn't. Some of them call the soldiers 'Nazis' or 'sons of bitches,' especially if they're Israelis, and the soldiers lose their cool and call them 'collaborators.' The instructions are to try to end the incident with as few as casualties as possible, and in many cases the way to put an end to the story is to seize the chief instigators."
How do you define an instigator?
The officer: "Someone who calls out things through a megaphone, agitates, tries to reach the [construction] equipment. In most cases, the moment we try to arrest those people, the event turns violent, with stones and things. You have to remember that it's in the participants' interest for the demonstration not to occur quietly. They want the event to be talked about, for people to say that there was a demonstration at which such-and-such happened. We try very hard to restrain ourselves, but you have to remember that when it comes to mortal danger, there is also a matter of subjective feeling - standing among hundreds of Palestinians at Bitunia, which is on the outskirts of Ramallah, is not like walking through Tel Aviv. You feel threatened.
"There is no doubt that the situation of the recent period poses a dilemma for us. If you're fired at, there is no dilemma, it's a black-and-white affair, you know what to do. In events of the kind we are talking about, which are now occurring almost every day, there's a lot of gray."
By Aviv Lavie - haaretz.com 16-04-04 weekend supplement edition.
====================
* [As described in the body of article - The Anarchists Against The Wall are the core of this involvement. I.S.]
WITH EMPTY HANDS
It's become an almost daily routine. Every morning the residents of villages located on the planned route of the separation fence - from Elkana in Samaria to the outskirts of Jerusalem - wake up to the harsh metallic noise of the bulldozers. In the early morning hours the heavy machinery rumbles into the area, surrounded by security guards and army and Border Police troops. The villagers go out to their land in full force: men and women, young and old alike. They position themselves opposite the soldiers, wave flags, sing and try to get to the giant machines or sit down on the ground in an attempt to block them. And then what? Only God knows. Some speak of December 26, 2003 as the turning point. That was the day on which an Israeli demonstrating against the fence, Gil Na'amati, was shot and wounded by Israeli soldiers at the village of Maskha, in Samaria. "What happened at Mes'ha, and the noise it created, shook up the Palestinians," says an Israeli who took part in some demonstrations. "They understood that they had to organize for a struggle against the fence and that the struggle could have an impact." Some of the interviewees term this uprising, which involves a civilian population of all ages, the "intifada of the fence," as distinct from the more familiar one of the terrorist organizations, the attacks and the armed fighters.
The Palestinian Authority has played a very small role in the events of the past few weeks. Although it was the PA that encouraged the Palestinians to protest against the fence while the international court at The Hague was discussing its legality in February, the current uprising started from below.
In some of the events, the Palestinian demonstrators are bolstered by Israelis, ranging in number from a few individuals to dozens, mainly from the Anarchists Against the Wall group, and by international peace activists. When the latter take part, they also document the events on video. It's clear, after watching hours of this footage, that the Palestinians may be reverting to the protest method of the first intifada, but the Israel Defense Forces is moving forward. Stun grenades and tear gas are often hurled at groups of elderly women or at high-school girls, and it is common to see civilians fleeing for their lives from rubber-coated steel bullets. In one case - the exception, as far as is known - soldiers used live fire against demonstrators, killing three residents of the village of Biddu, near Jerusalem; one of those killed was a boy of 11.
"There was a hitch at Bidu, a loss of control," admits a senior IDF officer. However, there are no reports of anyone having been brought to justice for the fact that three people paid with their lives for that "loss of control."
Legitimate struggle
What underlies this new, popular style of struggle, waged without the use of firearms? According to Ayid Murar, from Budrus - a village near Ben Shemen, where the route of the fence was moved toward the 1967 Green Line in the wake of the residents' protests and diplomatic pressure - the Palestinians have good reason to stick to a civil struggle.
"Our struggle is not against Jews and not against Israelis and not even against soldiers - it is against the occupation," he says. "We don't want people on either side to be killed. The occupation is a big problem, and the Palestinians can't cope with it alone. They need the help of the Arab states, of the world's governments, and in order to get it they have to adopt a method of struggle that has legitimacy in the eyes of the world. We already feel an increase in support and interest from all over the world about what is happening here. Once we were a marginal phenomenon even in the Arab press, but now we are back in the headlines."
Murar and his brother, Naim, a former employee of the Palestinian Interior Ministry, have for years maintained close ties with Israeli peace activists. They are a salient example of a new class of local leaders who are taking key positions in the forefront of the current struggle. Israel, though, looks askance at such activity. At the beginning of January the two brothers were arrested within a few days by the Shin Bet security service, on the grounds that "the intelligence material attributes terror-supporting activity to them." However, the military justice system itself rejected this. The military court at Ofer Camp released Ayid within a few days, stating: "It is out of the question for the military commander to use his authority to order a person's administrative detention [arrest without trial] only because of his activity against the fence. This is a mistaken decision that does not stem from security considerations." A month later, the military court at the Ketziot detention camp released Naim, stating that the military prosecution and the Shin Bet had misled the court by claiming he had been involved in terrorist activity and adding that protest activity against the fence does not constitute a cause for arrest.
Even though it is only at Budrus that the protests have succeeded in getting the route of the fence changed, Ayid Murar is convinced that this is the right path to follow: "We have to bring the entire Palestinian people into the struggle against the occupation - women, children, the aged - and they cannot take part in a violent struggle," he says. "But they can take part in this kind of struggle, which also contributes to the unity of our nation. We also know that a nonviolent struggle puts more pressure on the Israelis. When you have armed individuals and shooting, one Jeep with soldiers can deal with it. When the army has to deal with civilians, it has to bring in a far larger number of soldiers. After all, they can't open fire at them freely, or at least I hope not."
WHO STARTED?
Ghassan Andoni from Beit Sahour, south of Jerusalem, is one of the founders of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), the organization of volunteers that promotes nonviolent protest and seeks to internationalize the struggle against the occupation. His ideas have been gaining popularity.
"I don't agree with the view that the nonviolent protest has begun only now. It has actually existed since December 2000 and has taken the form, for example, of dismantling roadblocks by hand. However, it's true that it is now far more widespread," he says. "I'm glad it's happening, but it is still too passive, too much based on reactions. The villagers go out to protest only when the bulldozers show up and not as part of an overall perception of struggle against the occupation. The struggle should be comprehensive and not stop until the fence falls. The real test will be if every village will continue to be part of the struggle even after the fence is built. Until that happens, I can't say it is a success."
One of the leading activists in the village of Hirbata is Aziz Armani, 34, who after years of working in Israel speaks fluent Hebrew. In reaction to the contention that the current struggle has not recorded any impressive achievements, he says it has had "success here and there, though not a great success that we could flaunt. We are facing a tremendous force, while we are helpless and have nothing. Still, the main thing is that we feel we are doing something - if not for ourselves then for the coming generations. Even if we are able to get the fence moved two meters and save a few meters of our land, that will be something. I think that this struggle is giving us a great deal of strength. It doesn't belong to any organization, not to Hamas or to Fatah and not to the leadership of the PA; it belongs to the people. Each village has a council that is responsible and is scrupulous in ensuring that the demonstrations do not turn violent. We are not fighting the citizens who live in Tel Aviv - we are fighting the bulldozers."
Israelis vs. the fence
One of the major features of the struggle in its new form is the cooperation between Israelis and Palestinians. At every opportunity, the Palestinians make it clear that they are interested in furthering such cooperation because of their desire to influence public opinion in Israel, and more especially because the presence of Israelis, they hope, moderates the reactions of the soldiers. One of the Israeli activists explains that the reverse is also true: The presence of Israelis also moderates the Palestinian side.
"Our presence makes an important contribution to nonviolence," the activist says. "We push in this direction during the coordination that takes place before the demonstrations. It's true that if someone throws a stone we don't stop to preach to him, but there is always someone who will do it for us. Right away they tell him to stop. There's a feeling that they want to uphold their promise to us and not endanger us."
The IDF views the involvement of Israelis in a different light. The IDF Spokesperson's Office told Haaretz Magazine: "Unfortunately a handful of Israeli activists and foreigners who create provocations act as agitators and turn the demonstrations into violent disturbances."
One evening during the intermediate days of Pesach, I got a phone call from Yonatan Pollak, who sounded distraught. Pollak, 21, the son of the highly regarded actor Yossi Pollak, is considered the Israeli leader of the struggle against the fence (though as an anarchist, he disowns that description). Tall, charismatic, confident of his path, Pollak, despite his young age, has participated in numerous protest activities and does to the soldiers - who encounter him on an almost daily basis - what a red flag does to a bull.
"I called because within a few days there were two incidents in which Israeli demonstrators were almost killed - Itai Levinsky and me," Pollak said. "I called because if anything can stop the deterioration, it's publicity in the media. Let's leave the political aspect aside for the moment and talk about what's happening on the ground almost every day. There is a gradual but relentless escalation on the part of the army toward civilians taking part in demonstrations, which fundamentally are nonviolent. I spend a lot of time in the territories, and I've seen how riots and demonstrations are suppressed plenty of times, but what's happening here is something new. The feeling is that there are no procedures. They fire rubber bullets and throw tear gas freely, and they fire at the feet and at the head.
"Three Palestinians were already killed, at Biddu, and the day when an Israeli will be killed is approaching, too. If course, it's not worse for an Israeli to be killed than for a Palestinian, but it illustrates the escalation of the use of force. At every demonstration I talk to the soldiers via a megaphone and tell them that this is a quiet demonstration of Palestinians, Israelis and internationals - and the bullets whistle past my ears. At first we thought the cameras would deter them, then we thought the presence of Israelis would be a deterrent, but now there is nothing that deters the soldiers. I tell you: Someone is going to die out there."
Maybe it's time to stay home for a while?
Pollak: "I am a political person and I go to demonstrate. It's inconceivable that the state's response should be that I have to sit at home. Even if the army is convinced that what we are doing is a provocation - though from my point of view, of course, the provocation is the building of the fence on Palestinian land - in a democracy you can create provocations without being shot at."
Are you afraid?
"Very much. That's why I'm talking to you. But that doesn't mean we are going to stop the demonstrations. We will continue, but I don't think that's a reason for any of us to die."
Yonatan's older brother. Shai Carmeli-Pollak, a television director, has been filming the demonstrations against the fence and some of the footage documents a dramatic event in which Yonatan was the principal protagonist - the event he was referring to when he said his life was in mortal danger.
The event took place on March 29, at Bitunia, adjacent to Ramallah. Soldiers and demonstrators met on a dirt road at the entrance to the village. An army Jeep tried to move forward and a group of demonstrators, with Pollak among them, attempted to block its progress. The driver, however, accelerated and moved forward. Two of the demonstrators managed to jump aside, but Pollak, who was in the center, found himself on the hood of the Jeep.
The presence of the "hitchhiker" didn't perturb the soldiers. The Jeep kept going and even speeded up. For 50 long seconds - all of them documented on the video - the Jeep drove along with Pollak draped over the hood, grabbing at whatever he could find and holding on for dear life. A viewing of the film suggests that the vehicle was traveling between 30 and 60 kilometers an hour. It went a few dozen meters, did a U-turn and then returned to its starting point, where it slowed down, and Pollak was able to jump off.
Is driving a Jeep with a demonstrator straddling the hood - and an Israeli, at that - part of the IDF procedure for dispersing demonstrations? A senior officer says in response that "we view this event as a hitch, a serious departure. The event was investigated and the driver is being dealt with by Central Command and will face trial."
Bullet in the eye
Itai Levinsky says that he will return to the struggle after he recovers. It was Levinsky who, last December 26, saved the life of Gil Na'amati after Na'amati was shot by an IDF sniper near Maskha. While the soldiers ignored the demonstrators' pleas to summon an ambulance, Levinsky organized a quick evacuation of the bleeding Na'amati in a Palestinian car, and at the checkpoint an Israeli ambulance joined them. Na'amati lost a great deal of blood and arrived at the hospital in serious condition. The doctors told his father, Uri, the head of Eshkol Regional Council, that if the evacuation had been delayed they would probably not have been able to save his son's life.
Almost three months later, on March 12, it was Levinsky who ended up in hospital. "I went to demonstrate at Hirbata," he recalls. "The army's reaction was violent to the extreme this time. They simply fired rubber bullets like crazy, even though most of the people quickly lay down on the ground among the rocks. Naturally, when you're lying down, there's no difference whether they fire at your head or your legs, because it's all at the same height. I was standing in front and talking to the soldiers via the megaphone, to make them understand that there were Israelis there, too, which sometimes makes them calm down a little. It's scary, but what can you do?"
This time, though, the megaphone and the Hebrew weren't an insurance policy. Levinsky took a rubber bullet between his nose and his left eye.
"Suddenly I felt terrible pains around the eye and nose," he says. "My eye was injured, but luckily wasn't blown up, and the left side of my nose was completely shattered. I lay on the ground but was in total focus. A Red Crescent ambulance took me to the checkpoint, and from there I got to Tel Hashomer [Sheba Medical Center]. I was hospitalized for 10 days and had an operation on my nose, and because my vision is still pretty much of a mess I'll need eye surgery, too. The truth is that I was really lucky, because a rubber bullet that enters the eye can reach the brain. It's total chance that I'm alive. For both me and Gili it's pure luck that we weren't killed."
Film shot at the Hirbata demonstration - though the actual instant when Levinsky was wounded was not photographed - reinforces his version of events. The soldiers fire massively at dozens of people who are lying on the ground and seeking shelter amid the rocks.
"At about 6 A.M., as soon as the bulldozers started working, the villagers started to demonstrate," relates Raz Avni, 23, a former kibbutznik who now lives in Tel Aviv. "We were about six Israelis that day. The soldiers were standing in a row across from the demonstrators and there was a lot of cursing, pushing and punching, and then the soldiers suddenly pulled back quickly, turned around and started firing rubber bullets. I was next to Itai. He said through the megaphone, `This is not a violent demonstration. Don't shoot.' Suddenly he shouted. I looked at him - he was lying on the ground and his eye was bleeding. I called the Red Crescent medics, who come to every demonstration. It took them a few minutes to reach us, because the shooting continued. They put a dressing on his eye and evacuated him to the ambulance on a stretcher."
Levinsky, 20, grew up in Ramat Efal and Holon and now lives in the lower-class Hatikva neighborhood in South Tel Aviv. He did not do army service. Until recently he worked in construction. He plans to go back to the demonstrations as soon as his health permits. One day during Pesach, Uri and Gil Na'amati - whose shattered knee is still in the rehabilitation process - drove from their home in the south of the country to visit Gil's rescuer, who was afterward wounded himself.
"What is left to say?" Uri Na'amati summed up. "It's heartbreaking."
Provocateurs
As in every quarrel, here, too, the dispute revolves around the question of who started it. How does happen that demonstrations whose organizers term them nonviolent evolve into events with dozens of wounded, mainly from massive use of rubber bullets? A senior IDF officer finds it difficult to accept the pastoral descriptions of a nonviolent intifada: "I don't know of any quiet demonstration where the people stood and sang, but which ended with rubber bullets fired by us," he says. "We have set ourselves a clear line that distinguishes a demonstration from a disturbance: The moment an attempt is made to attack equipment or soldiers, it's a disturbance, and then our response ratchets up. The mission as defined for us by the political echelon is to enable construction of the fence, and as fast as possible, and if a bulldozer is burned every day the fence won't get built. The instructions to the forces in the field are clear: The first means they are allowed to use is stun grenades and tear gas. If that doesn't help, we recommend that the instigators be arrested and that a complaint against them be filed with the police, because that often disperses things. Only if we have gone through that procedure, and the soldiers are on the receiving end of stones - and from our point of view stones are a mortal danger - the next level is to fire rubber [bullets], with the authorization of a battalion commander at least, and the firing has to be aimed at someone specific, a chief instigator who we didn't succeed in arresting."
The films shot at many demonstrations show that there is a large gap between these instructions and their application in the field. Time after time the camera records massive firing by many soldiers at the same time in the general direction of demonstrators, who are sometimes dozens or hundreds of meters away. One thing is certain: The firing is not aimed at a lone "instigator." As for the stone throwing, it's difficult to decide which comes first: the stones or the rubber bullets. The impression is that things change from village to village and from event to event.
"In some cases two or three children throw stones from a distance of 100 meters, and it's obvious that this is symbolic and can't hurt anyone," says Dr. Kobi Snitz, who teaches mathematics at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, and has taken part in a number of demonstrations. "Sometimes three hours of an encounter go by without one stone being thrown, and then suddenly the soldiers lose it - they're standing out in the sun for hours, you know - and they start throwing stun and tear-gas grenades, and then all hell breaks loose. [Some] villages have a committee that tries to keep the children under control, but it's hard."
Snitz says the escalation is the result of deliberate policy - if not at the political level, then at least at the decision-making level in the army: "There are now demonstrations of hundreds and thousands of people every day. Whoever takes 10 soldiers to a site like that tells them, `No matter what happens, [demonstrators] don't get close to the bulldozers,' knows what the result will be."
What do you expect the soldiers to do - let the bulldozers be torched?
Snitz: "A properly run state understands that when there is resistance at a certain level to policy, either it heightens the violence and crushes the resistance or it sits and listens. Naturally, I think the soldiers should refuse to do what they are doing, but beyond that, every major in the field can [inform his superiors] via radio - when he's facing this number of people - that the mission he has been given is impossible to execute unless they want the whole thing to blow up. The problem is that he then ruins his chances of promotion. I often talk to the soldiers in the field and many of them say that they're there because `I have no choice,' or `What do you want me to do,' or `I know there's something wrong, but what can I do?' When senior officers describe serious events as `hitches,' they are effectively transferring responsibility to the individual soldier."
Legal battles
In the past few weeks the "intifada of the fence" has also been keeping the High Court of Justice busy. As part of the effort to play the game according to the rules of Israeli democracy, a number of villages have filed petitions to the court against the route of the fence. Most of the cases are still pending. The lawyer in the majority of the petitions is Mohammed Dahla, an Israeli citizen whose office is located in East Jerusalem.
Dahla sums up the results of the legal battle to date: "Roughly speaking, I can say that in more than 70 percent of the routes with respect to which petitions have been filed to the High Court, interim injunctions have been issued prohibiting the continuation of the work. In another 15 percent the court allowed the state to work without limitations, though noting that if the petition is accepted the state will have to restore the status quo ante and compensate residents. And in the other 15 percent of the cases, the court allowed irreversible work to be carried out."
In some cases Dahla filed the petition together with Palestinian villages and Jews from nearby communities who support the moving of the fence from the villagers' farmlands to inside the Green Line. In one such case, a joint petition was filed by residents of Beit Suriq, a village situated across a ridge from the Jerusalem suburb of Mevasseret Zion, and by 30 residents of the suburb. A far larger number of residents of Mevasseret Zion, more than 600, signed a petition supporting the moving of the fence inside the Green Line, and 50 of them joined the residents of Beit Suriq in a demonstration.
An interesting development in this case occurred when the petitioners added the names of several retired IDF generals from the Council for Peace and Security, among them Assaf Hefetz, Avraham Adan, Shaul Givoli and others, who have recently visited various parts of the fence route and reject the defense establishment's claim that the route was established with security considerations in mind. This connection between a group of security-conscious veterans and Palestinian villagers is little short of surrealistic against the backdrop of the current intifada, but has arisen due to the struggle against the route of the fence.
Last week, at the height of the army's encirclement of a house in Biddu, the residents called Dahla, who rushed to court and was able to get an interim injunction against the demolition of the house.
"This is an interesting process," he says. "It is reviving the popular uprising. Willy-nilly, the residents are getting involved in this because they are simply losing everything they have. They understand that if they don't act, they will end up living in a ghetto, without their lands or a source of livelihood. The decision on an unarmed uprising is a strategic one. We can see that in these places there is no use of firearms, not only when it comes to soldiers but also in regard to the nearby settlements or Israeli locales located across the hill. Maybe it's because of their location - these are places [whose residents] have worked a great deal with Israelis - or maybe it's because of the cooperation with the left-wingers, or maybe it's because they understand that the important war is the one for Israeli public opinion."
However, that battle is so far not succeeding. Three and a half years of intifada, and some 37 years of occupation, have made the Israeli public and its establishments blind to developments on the other side, leaving them unable or unwilling to take note of subtleties. True, the IDF doesn't view the demonstrators as armed gangs, but disperses the protesters with a force that they perceive as a way to persuade them that even nonviolent protest is useless. The media ignore the demonstrations almost totally, and because this is a daily struggle that is also dangerous, no more than dozens of Israelis are taking part in it, joined occasionally by activists from movements such as Ta'ayush [the Arab-Jewish Partnership grass-roots organization] and Gush Shalom. "The message that Israel is sending the Palestinians who are trying to protest nonviolently is that we don't want any such protest," says one Israeli who participates in the demonstrations. "It's that we prefer a violent struggle and that we are not willing to accord legitimacy to any type of resistance by them. For years we have been asking them why they don't follow the path of Mahatma Gandhi, but when they do just that we respond with rubber bullets and tear gas. What we are doing now is shooting the Palestinian peace camp."n
Olive trees and rubber bullets
"A demonstration by Palestinians against the construction [of the fence] is a loaded business with plenty of emotions - land, work, olive trees - and when Israelis, internationals and the media join in, it becomes even more complex," says a senior IDF officer who is responsible for the sector where most of the events in the past few months have taken place. "That complexity finds expression in the way we can allow ourselves to respond, morally and in terms of values, and also taking into consideration how it looks to the world and to Israeli society."
The turning point, the officer says, was the shooting of Gil Na'amati. "That event was investigated by the chief of staff, and afterward clear instructions were issued. The most significant thing that changes when Israelis are in the field is the rules of engagement [for opening fire]. We try to make use of a great deal of police intervention and to address the subject through the courts. I've heard that the Palestinians call it a 'peaceful demonstration,' but it seems to me we have a conceptual gap here. When the Palestinians throw stones, they regard it as a quiet demonstration. And I'm not talking about one stone. It's important to point out that at one demonstration, in Beit Lakiya, there was also shooting; we arrested the squad that did the shooting, though it's true that this was the only case.
"I don't say there are no hitches. A soldier is out there for hours, being cursed. Not all of them are icemen and sometimes even commanding officers lose control. There is friction, it's not sterile. As part of the verbal friction our people also say things they shouldn't. Some of them call the soldiers 'Nazis' or 'sons of bitches,' especially if they're Israelis, and the soldiers lose their cool and call them 'collaborators.' The instructions are to try to end the incident with as few as casualties as possible, and in many cases the way to put an end to the story is to seize the chief instigators."
How do you define an instigator?
The officer: "Someone who calls out things through a megaphone, agitates, tries to reach the [construction] equipment. In most cases, the moment we try to arrest those people, the event turns violent, with stones and things. You have to remember that it's in the participants' interest for the demonstration not to occur quietly. They want the event to be talked about, for people to say that there was a demonstration at which such-and-such happened. We try very hard to restrain ourselves, but you have to remember that when it comes to mortal danger, there is also a matter of subjective feeling - standing among hundreds of Palestinians at Bitunia, which is on the outskirts of Ramallah, is not like walking through Tel Aviv. You feel threatened.
"There is no doubt that the situation of the recent period poses a dilemma for us. If you're fired at, there is no dilemma, it's a black-and-white affair, you know what to do. In events of the kind we are talking about, which are now occurring almost every day, there's a lot of gray."
By Aviv Lavie - haaretz.com 16-04-04 weekend supplement edition.
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* [As described in the body of article - The Anarchists Against The Wall are the core of this involvement. I.S.]
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