This interview was conducted between a British ISM activist and Raz, an activist in the Israeli organisation 'anarchists against the wall' during a break in the ISM initiated march along the proposed route of the Apartheid wall in Palestine. The questions are both those on the interviewer and the Freedom editorial staff. It would be wrong to call 'anarchists against the wall' an organization in the formal sense, and they themselves would probably prefer not to have this label. The label was assumed by and for the Israeli media once their actions came to its attention. It was clear from the interview that they would prefer just to be seen as anarchists, and as anarchists opposition to the wall would automatically follow. Shortly after the interview was conducted two of them initiated a direct action at the wall and smashed through two gates, one of which was electrified. The action was given the encouragement and consent of the local Palestinians, and had Palestinian participation, but nevertheless demonstrated the special role the Israeli anarchists play in the unarmed struggle. As Israeli citizens they are in far more danger from the IDF and the legal system than international activists, but then again, as Israeli citizens they are more passionate in their opposition too.
1) what size is the organization and what are its main functions?
Raz - We are at demonstrations and actions once or twice a week, and on these demo's there are generally 10 to 15 of us. The organization is really more of a network for anarchists who want to do direct actions, and we have about 100 active people the contact list. As for our functions, they change with the Palestinians. Up until February last year we concentrated on direct actions against the wall - cutting or dismantling it, but we have slowly changed slightly after two big events: after the end of the Masha peace camp, and the popular uprising in Budrus. In Budrus we moved towards popular uprising happily; we were invited to take part in daily demonstrations and resistance by the community themselves, and it was really cool to see the community rising up together. Since then we have tried to combine this sort of work with our direct action - this march could be considered part of this.
2)How has the state reacted since your creation?
?In the first two actions we had, in Zubaba, there was no state intervention. Then in Masha on the 26th of september the army shot an anarchist in both legs. One activist was arrested after a demo and had to sign a contract promising not to damage the wall again (interviewers note:
the Israeli security forces are fond such contracts, and are a useful propaganda tool for the Israeli public. The have the dual purpose of making the IDF seem calm and reasonable and the prisoner, normally uncharged, seem guilty by association.). A few activists have been interrogated by the Shabak (branch of secret service). On demo's the police are always trying to arrest the Israelis now. It won't be too long before someone gets a serious prison sentence. We are under surveillance as well, which we know from experience. The Shabak are really on our back with monitoring and stopping actions before they happen ?if they know where and when we will cross through the wall into Palestine, all they have to do is notify the checkpoint or get the taxi we are in stopped on the way. When the International Court of Justice trial of the wall began in the Hague on the 23rd of February we got stopped on our way to a demo 3 times using different routes. We ended up going back to Tel Aviv and doing the demo outside the War Ministry building there, which is basically like a massive military compound in the middle of town. A few people blocked the road and stop their cars coming out. 12 people were arrested for this. Many have been charged with assaulting police for passive resistance. The trial will be in September and I think this is where the legal system will catch up with us.
) How much support - if any - do you have within Israel?
Actually we do have some support from individuals in Israel. We do not have the official support of any groups, but individuals within different Israeli peace groups and also some journalists.
Internationally? There was a benefit gig organized for us in Amsterdam 2 months ago. Last year two of us toured Europe giving lectures and were able to collect some donations too.
) Was this tour within the anarchist community in the countries visited?
No, it was not explicitly anarchist. It was more about telling people the realities, about the wall and the occupation. The lectures were at universities, so they were for students and anyone who attended.
) How do you see the situation developing?
With continuing land confiscations, and continued extension to the fences, I do not see it getting any better. It looks like the resistance in Israel to removing any settlements means the fence will go up, and go up where it is now. That means well into the green line. Er... don't get me wrong I don't want the wall anywhere at all... For the situation in general, it won't come anywhere near peace whilst there are still settlements.
) Have you considered doing actions at settlements then?
No. The settler security would probably shoot us, and what would be the point if they didn't? The residents wouldn't listen to what we have to say. These people think what they are doing is the will of god. The army are reasonable in comparison.
What are the groups intentions for the future? Is there a particular direction the group is moving in or would like to move in?
No. We follow Palestinian initiatives basically. (Interviewers NB; like the ISM in this respect) We participate in their initiatives, but we always try to be involved in the planning and decision making too.
) Do you expect to grow in size?
Not really. We have really just united anarchists interested in direct action in Israel, I don't think that we have created any new ones!
) This brings me to my next question; for you personally, what came first - opposition to the occupation or anarchism?
Opposition to the occupation.
) Do you see it as natural that anarchists would support the struggle and your participation then? I'm playing devil's advocate, but isn't this a national liberation struggle, with a lot of religious and nationalistic dominance?
I expect anarchists to support the struggle. This is not a national liberation struggle it is a human rights struggle.
) The right answer! In that case would you like to extend an invitation to anarchists to come out and work with you?
Sure. Its not something we actively do, but we have houses and places for people to stay. Its definitely a possibility.
) Do you have a message for the international anarchist community; they all read Freedom of course!
If they see this struggle as part of their struggle they are welcome here. We would like to have more contact with other organizations internationally.
I know it’s a bit shitty, but money always helps too. We have a website I think, but I can't remember the address; there's a link to it off onestruggle.org, an Israeli animal rights and anarchist website. It's probably best to email me at barvazduck@yahoo.com And that’s for anything, not just if you want to give some money.
) Final question then. Are there any Palestinian anarchists?
Apparently yes! Some people said they met Palestinian anarchists in Balata refugee camp. Some people we work with are secretly anarchists though they won't admit it! Perhaps you should ask them?
right that's the end of the interview; it was an abrupt end as I was being gesticulated at to attend another meeting. I will openly admit to paraphrasing this poor man to a disgusting level, even though he spoke perfect English. I really couldn't write down everything he said fast enough, I just wrote notes, and I've filled the gaps from memory. The information (should be) correct, but it is often my interpretation, which is why it might sound like an internal dialogue. Also its completely false chronology of questions, but this is only because he said things that lead on to other points at different times. [Jimma – edit this as you see fit obviously cut this end bit starting with 'right'. Its up to you of course but I reckon you should definitely get in touch with them and make some links, possibly invite them to Britain. Also they would really like to see this on paper, so mail them a copy when (if?) its printed.
Thursday, August 12, 2004
Tuesday, August 3, 2004
Israel-Palestine, Media, ISM Activists, Palestinians and Anarchists Against the Wall break through fence near Tul Karm 03/08/04
Palestinian residents of the West Bank village of Kafr Zeita and anti-separation fence activists on Monday burst through a gate in the barrier separating the village from its agricultural lands. Activists from the pro-Palestinian International Solidarity Movement and the Israeli group Anarchists Against the Fence said this was the first time demonstrators have managed to break through the barrier. Activists and residents of the village, located north of Tul Karm, began breaking through the gate when there were no Israel Defense Forces soldiers present. When the first patrol jeep arrived on the scene, the gate had already been opened.
"Nothing will dissuade us from breaking this fence," Yonatan Pollack, of Anarchists Against the Fence, said.
The organization's activity in Kafr Zeita was part of its protest march from Jenin to Jerusalem along the route of the separation fence. The march is slated to end in another two weeks.
In 2003, Anarchists activist Gil Na'amati was wounded by IDF gunfire during an attempt by the group to break through the fence.
Link: http://www.stopthewall.org/
Source: http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/459243.html
Israel, Tel Aviv, Hiroshima Day, roaming vigil from War ministry compound, through Japans embassy, to US embassy 06/08/04 Today, marking 59 years since the atom bomb was dropped on the city of Hiroshima - about 25 anarchist, antiauthoritarians of the left and others of the Israeli Committee for a Middle East Free from Atomic, Biological and Chemical Weapons held a roaming vigil - march. We started with an half hour vigil at the Ministry of War (Defense) in the Kiryah in Tel Aviv with placards and leaflets. Ten we proceed in a sneak like march with placards an leaflets to the Japanese Embassy. After about half an hour there we continued the march across town to the US Embassy, where we enjoyed another vigil between the sea shore and the and embassy.
Ilan
"Nothing will dissuade us from breaking this fence," Yonatan Pollack, of Anarchists Against the Fence, said.
The organization's activity in Kafr Zeita was part of its protest march from Jenin to Jerusalem along the route of the separation fence. The march is slated to end in another two weeks.
In 2003, Anarchists activist Gil Na'amati was wounded by IDF gunfire during an attempt by the group to break through the fence.
Link: http://www.stopthewall.org/
Source: http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/459243.html
Israel, Tel Aviv, Hiroshima Day, roaming vigil from War ministry compound, through Japans embassy, to US embassy 06/08/04 Today, marking 59 years since the atom bomb was dropped on the city of Hiroshima - about 25 anarchist, antiauthoritarians of the left and others of the Israeli Committee for a Middle East Free from Atomic, Biological and Chemical Weapons held a roaming vigil - march. We started with an half hour vigil at the Ministry of War (Defense) in the Kiryah in Tel Aviv with placards and leaflets. Ten we proceed in a sneak like march with placards an leaflets to the Japanese Embassy. After about half an hour there we continued the march across town to the US Embassy, where we enjoyed another vigil between the sea shore and the and embassy.
Ilan
Monday, August 2, 2004
Britain-Israel-Palestine, The Wall and the Anarchists Against The Wall. 02/08/04
Introduction: AF* Intro: this is the text of a talk given in Manchester on June 7th, 2004. It has been edited slightly. We have tried to use most of the pictures Uri showed during his talk. As this makes it a very large file, we have broken it down into smaller chunks. Follow the link at the end of each page (starting at: http://www.af-north.org/wall.htm). Some of the later sections are still under construction and have text and no photos. My name is Uri Ayalon I’m an Israeli and I'm working as a journalist and as a facilitator in the school of peace in Neve-Shalom Wahat al-Salam. As a journalist I used to be the media reporter of “Haaretz” newspaper and now I’m writing articles about politics and culture for “Walla” website, and also I’m the theatre critic of the finance newspaper “Globes”.
I have been an activist since I was 13 years old. After the murder of Rachel Corrie on March 2003, I decided to devote my time and power to the struggle against the Israeli occupation. In the last few months I'm participating in the civil protest against the "Separation Fence". As part of a group named "Anarchist Against the Wall" I've attended a lot of demo's in the occupited teritorrie as well as direct action, such as the famous cutting of the fence on the day the soldiers fired at us seriously injuring one of my friend – Gil Na’amati.
I’m here not only in the name of my group or my friends in the radical left of Israel. I’m here in the name of my good friend Mohanad from Nablus and in the name of Nazee from Mas’ha. Nazee and Mohanad not only can’t go aboard to the UK, they even can’t go outside their village or city.
My lecture will deal with:
The history of the occupation since 1947
The history of the aparthaid wall
How does it look and what does it do to the Palestinians
And then I’ll show a short movie (of 4 minutes) about the new kind of resistance against the wall that started few months ago by the people who live near the wall. I’ll talk about the change in the Palestinan tactic and I’ll also review the Israeli forces that join and help this new activities.
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A short history of the occupation:
· According to the decision of the UN this should be the distribution between the Palestinians and the Jewish people who lived in Palestine. The Jewish were only 600,000 - 37% of the population, but they got 55% of the land. Almost half of the Palestinians should have been under Israeli control. This decision of the UN made Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq join to the Palestinian people in the struggle against the new state of Israel.
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· In the end of the war of 1948 – which contained horrible massacres and expulsions, 2.5 millions of Palestinians became refugees.
· In the war of 1967 Israel occupied the Golan hights, Sinai, the west bank and Gaza strip. Before 1967 only 400,000 Palestinians were residents of Israel, in the occupation of 1967 1.1 millions Palestinians were added (a lot of them were all ready refugees). Few days after the war a small Israeli radical left group “Matzpen” (“compass”) published this statement: “ occupation leads to foreign regime, that leads to resistance, that leads to oppression, that leads to terror and opposite terror. Keep holding the occupied territories will turn us to a people of murders and victims of murders”.
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· The Intifada (“rising up”) of the Palestinians that started on 1987 brought to the beginning of the “peace process” in 1993. Rabin’s government signed the Oslo agreement with the PLO and most of the Israelis felt that we are putting an end to the occupation and starting new relationships with the Palestinians and with the Arab world. But the reality in the occupied territories was different (areas A, B and C – separeted the Palestinians in to bantutsans).
· The disappointed from the so called “peace process” together with provocation in Al-Aqsa mosque, one of the holly places for the Muslims in Jerusalem of Ariel Sharon who was the leader of the opposition in the parliament at that time lead to The 2nd Intifada. Since October 2000 Palestinians fighters killed more then 1,000 Israelis. Israel re-occupied the territories and killed more then 3,000 Palestinians. Suicide bombers are the most terrified issue for most of the Israelis bringing the territories into the green line (the border between Israel to the west bank).
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· According to the Israeli government the fence is meant purely to prevent suicide bombers from getting into Israel, not to set the country's borders. The settlers feared that the fence would be made on the Green Line and leave them outside. That is why the right wings apposed the fence especially Ariel Sharon. In practice, the fence's root takes as much as it can from the land of the West Bank without considering security issues. The fence is actually a system of fences that will imprison hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in barbed wire-enclosed enclaves.
xxx
The History of the Wall:
· Since 1994 the Gaza Strip has been surrounded by a barrier that cuts off the residents from the rest of the world (especially from the West Bank); Gazza has no economic autonomy, Israel controls everybody and everything that goes in and out of the strip.
The Fence of The Gaza Strip
· In November 2000, Prime Minister Ehud Barak (Labor party) approved the first project to build a "barrier". His election campaign was: “We are here – they are there”. The leader of the opposition, Ariel Sharon, was one of the main opponent to the idea of a fence. He didn’t want to give in the dream of “Big Israel” - from the Jordan to the sea.
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· In June 2002, the new government of Israel, leading by Ariel Sharon, decided to build a physical barrier to separate Israel and the West Bank in order to prevent the uncontrolled entry of Palestinians into Israel. Construction of the Wall, including land confiscation and the uprooting of trees in Jenin.
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· Only In September 2002, the first public map of the Wall-consisting of only the northern part -was made available to the public.
· In March 2003 Sharon declared the expansion of the Wall by building a wall within and along the entire Jordan Valley, bringing the settlements in this area under total Israeli control.
· In July 2003, the Israeli defense Ministry announced the completion of the "first phase" of the Wall, a total of 145 km from the planned 728 km . The Israeli government allotted an additional $171 million for the construction of the Wall. The Wall costs some $3 billion, approximately $4 million per kilometer. On any given day have 500 bulldozers at work, paving and building one of the largest projects in the history of the country.
· Currently, it has been already built in the districts of Qalqiliya, Tulkarem and Jenin (from salem to masha) and being built in Ramallah, Jerusalem, and Bethlehem. In 2005, the entire project should be finished.
· Besides the horrific humanistic and economic reality that the wall imposes on the Palestinian people, the wall is the biggest environmental disaster in the history of Israel.
http://www.af-north.org/wall2.htm
What does it look like?
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* Actually it’s a system of electric fences, barbed wire, trenches, patrol roads, trace paths, cameras and sensors. The fence it self is 3 meters high.
xxx
* The concrete Wall, now present in Qalqiliya, parts of Tulkarem and East Jerusalem (always near houses) is 8 meters high – twice the height of the Berlin Wall - with armed watchtowers and a "buffer zone"of 30-100 meters. The Wall's "buffer zone" paves the way for demolitions and the expulsion of nearby residents as in many places the Wall is located just meters away from homes, shops, and schools.
xxxx
* The Israeli military has created gates in the Wall; however these do not provide any guarantee for farmers to access their land but instead creates system of permits and checkpoints where Palestinians are humiliated.xxxx
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* This is in addition to more then 600 checkpoints that the Israeli army made in the last 3 years. 56 of them are permanent and the others are changing and most of the time blocking the roads without any soldiers but with stones. This creates a system of only-Jewish roads all over the west bank. This is one of the evil faces of the occupation preventing the people the freedom of movement and letting them waited for hours and being controlled by young soldiers.
xxx
* It’s important to remember that the Israeli army controls both of the sides of the fence (!).xxx
The Route of the wall
* The Wall is not being built on, or in most cases near, the 1967 Green Line, but rather cuts deep into the West Bank, 6-7 km from the green line
* Isolating communities into cantons, closed-off by an "Isolation Barrier" ensuring they are surrounded on all sides.
* The lands between the Wall and the Green Line have been declared by Israel as a “seam zone” whereby all residents and lands owners must obtain a permit to remain in their homes and on their lands. 11,700 people in 13 villages will be imprisoned between the wall and the green line. This not includes over 200,000 residents of East Jerusalem, who will be totally isolated from the rest of the West Bank.
* 98 % of the settler population will be included in the Israeli side of the fence. At the demand of the Israeli settlers, the wall is planned to move far further to the east, to include the settlements of Ariel, Emanuel and Kedumim. This will increase dramatically the number of Palestinians who will be affected by the wall.
* The control of the water sources is an important motivation for the Israeli government in steeling the land in north-west bank area. This land sits above the mountain aquifer (a huge underground reservoir) witch is one of the main water sources for central Israel (providing 600 million kub’ of water every year).
* The wall is expected to have a devastating impact on the lives of some 210,000 Palestinians, living in 67 towns or villages.
* If the east fences will be built The Palestinian population in the West Bank and Gaza Strip would live on only 12% of historic Palestine.
Creating Ghettos
* The Wall encircles regions with the highest Palestinian population density into ghettos. The isolation from basic services in these areas along with the loss of land, markets, and resources, equates to the inability for communities to sustain themselves adequately and with dignity.
* Farming is a primary source of income in the Palestinian communities situated along the barrier's route, an area that constitutes one of the most fertile areas in the West Bank. The harm to the farming sector will have and already has drastic economic effects on the residents and drive many families into poverty.
* The barrier will also significantly reduce access of the population to the hospitals in nearby cities. The educational system will also be harmed because many teachers come from outside the communities in which they teach.
* According to the Israeli state’s report from 2002, most of the Palestinians who did attacks in Israel entered the country through the checkpoints situated along the Green Line, and not through the open areas between the checkpoints. This why the current rout has little to do with the security of Israeli civilians.
* In the past, Israel used "imperative military needs" to justify expropriation of land to establish settlements and argued that the action was temporary. The settlements have for some time been facts on the ground. It is reasonable to assume that, as in the case of the settlements, the separation barrier will become a permanent fact to support Israel's future claim to take additional land.
* Qualqiliya is one of the cities which became a huge prison. The wall sarronding Qalqiliya completely, leaving one opening guarded by two checkpoints. The city, once was the centre of commerce, is ding these days with more and more people who leaves it to the village area tring to live from farmring.
* Jerusalem - The Wall in Jerusalem and the ring of settelments around it, furthering the completing the isolation of Jerusalem from the West Bank. At the same time, the Wall rips through villages and neighborhoods, separating families, cutting social and economic ties, and ghettoizing areas.
* Its not separating the Israelis from Palestinians but separating Palestinians from each other and from there livelihood, schools, hospitals and all municipal services.
The new kind of resistance against the wall:
* Almost every morning the residents of villages located on the planned route of the separation fence - wake up to the noise of the bulldozers. In the early morning the heavy machinery rumbles into the area, surrounded by security guards and army.
* The construction of the barrier has brought new restrictions on movement for Palestinians living near the barrier's route, in addition to the widespread restrictions that have been in place since the outbreak of the current Intifada. You can 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 attacks and the armed fighters.
* Almost every day the villagers go out to their land: men and women, young and old. They position themselves opposite the soldiers, wave flags and try to get to the machines or sit down on the ground in an attempt to block them.
* Violence would usually break out after the demonstration disperses. Usually soldiers would shoot rubber coated metal bullets, shock grenades and tear gas at the crowd. Soldiers would sometimes even enter the village and chase people into houses.
* For their part, the young people would respond with stone throwing from a distance of 100 meters, and it's obvious that this is symbolic and can't really hurt anyone. Sometimes three hours of an encounter go by without one stone being thrown, and then suddenly the soldiers “lose it” and start throwing tear-gas and then all hell breaks loose.
* The Palestinian Authority has played a very small role in the events of the past few months. The current uprising started from below, from people who watch their land being taken.
* 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 who also document the events on video. Although the form of organization is anarchistic in the sense of no centralized power and direct participatory democracy, not all the participants consider themselves as anarchists.
* Since the end of 2003 the group has been mostly active in supporting Palestinian demonstrations against the wall. The main aims are to reduce the threat of violence against the Palestinians and to increase media attention.
* We believe that a nonviolent struggle puts more pressure on the Israelis. When the army has to deal with civilians, it has to bring in a far larger number of soldiers. They can't open fire at them freely, or at least we hope not.
* In spite of the best efforts by organizers, almost every week of demonstrations ends with at least a few wounded. 262 people have been injured and 5 killed in the village Biddu (near Jerusalem). One of those killed was a boy of 11.
* Budrus, a small village close to the Green Line, Since November 2003 has been the model for what has come to be called “The Third Intifada”: Popular resistance to the wall by whole villages.
* In January two brothers from Budrus 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, 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.
* On March 29, at Bitunia (near 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 Jonathan Pollak among them, attempted to block its progress. The driver 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 which kept going and even speeded up. 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.
* On March 12, Itai Levinsky was injured in Hirbata. The army simply fired rubber bullets like crazy. Itai was standing in front and talking to the soldiers by the megaphone. At every demonstration we talk to the soldiers by a megaphone and tell them that this is a quiet demonstration of Palestinians, Israelis and internationals. While Itay was talking on the megaphone he took a rubber bullet between his nose and his left eye.
* The day when an Israeli will be killed is approaching. Of 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 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. What they are doing now is shooting the Palestinian peace camp.
* The participation of women in this struglle is uniqe. The Palestinian women don’t usually get the opportunity to get involve with politic actions. The dacition of letting the women to go to the demonstrations and talk with the soldairs and block the buldozers the Palestinians arren not only a better coverage in the media but also give more power the the women them selfs. I believe it is sing of a women’s lib from a very old tradition of a patriachal sociaty. Some of the demonstrations are for womens only, organized by the women of the village combining Israeli and Palestinians femenist activists.
The Israeli Position
· The settlers
· Likud
· Labor and Meretz
· Radical left wings (Anti-Zionist)
Israeli resistance against the occupation since October 2000:
* Ta’ayush: A join Israeli-Palestinian group that was created after the beginning of the 2nd Intifada (October 2000). This month was one of the only cases that the Palestinians who lives in Israel actively resisted and raise their voice in solidarity with their brothers in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. “Ta’ayush” (“partnership” in Arabic) are doing many actions in the territories: bringing food to cities in closer and helping farmers to work their land
* Gush-shalom: An Israeli group that was created by Uri and Rachel Avnery after the decision of Rabin’s government in 1992 to expulse 415 Hamas members to Lebanon. That was an important moment for the extreme Israeli left who started to understand that this “left” government is not what he thinks or hopes it will be.
* Others groups: Women’s Coalition [a short movie of them is available], Machsom Watch, The Israeli committee against house demolitions, Rabbis for Peace, the different groups of refusers (the young one who refuses to go to the army at all, the reserves who don’t agree to serve in the occupied territories, the pilots and more. More than 600 refusers)
* Black Laundry: a group of gays and lesbians fighting together for queer rights, feminist issues, social justice and against the occupation. It was created for the Tel-Aviv gay parade on 2001, few months after the beginning of the second Intifada. People were murdered in the territories and we felt that we can’t celebrate as usual. In the beginning it was not clear for the left activists why we should come as gays to demonstrations against the wall, but after a lot of actions and discussions I can say that our visibility is accepted and welcome. This, I can’t really say about our Palestinians partners so in the territories we usually go back to the closet. Mas’ha camp was unique in this aspect.
* Independent activists working with the ISM: many Israelis worked with the ISM, but there was a feeling of need to make the fact that Israelis were resisting (in the same methods of the ISM) - important, both for the Israeli public and for the Palestinian public (and also internationally). Israelis also come from a different perspective and culture then the internationals and it’s important to create an autonomist group resisting together with Palestinians and internationals but as a separate group.
* After a few actions against the wall in Israel and Palestine, a small group started to come together and started building a trusted reputation of Israeli direct action activists willing to struggle together with local Palestinians against the wall.
* In March 2003 the village of Mas’ha invited the group to build a protest tent on the land of the village that was being stolen for the wall (98% of Mas’ha land was taken). The protest camp was created and became a center of struggle and information against the planned construction in the area and in the whole west bank. Over the 4 months of the camp more than thousand of Internationals and Israelis came to the camp to learn about the situation and join the struggle.
* In August 2003, we've found out that in the morning the construstors of the wall intend to start working inside Hani Ammer's yard at the edge of the village of Mas'ha. In order to construct the wall inside the yard. Several structures had to be destroyed (crippling ammer's sources of income) and the final plan is to have his yard surrounded with fences (from four sides), and to "allow" his family and visitors to enter and exit the yard only on specific times during the day (as if it were a prison camp). Early morning 5th of August all structures but the house itseld were destroyed, a total of more than 60 Palestinian, Israeli and international activists were sleeping in the tent on that night and they detained and were arrested. The next day, 28 Israelis came again and we managed to stop the bulldozers from destroying Hani’s yard for a few hours. Then, the army arrested us all.
* During the camp a direct action group calling itself “Anarchist Against the Fence”, or: “Jewish Against Ghettos”, or simply: “Anarchist against walls”, was created. We started to make graffiti on the wall, as well as put a giant poster on it. The group also held many joint actions across the territories. For example: Salem (July), Anin (August) and Zbube (9th November) in which we succeeded in breaking the fence. These actions built a growing reputation in the Palestinian public but got almost no attention from the Israeli press and media.
* December 26, 2003 might be 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 Mas’ha. This action had a big impact on the struggle against the fence. We came to the gate of the apartheid fence built between Ma’sha to the settlement Elkana. Against all of the army's promises, at the few previous weeks the gate stayed shut, and prevented the people of Ma’sha from reaching their fields and sources of income. The soldiers started to shoot in the air and on the ground near us. In spite of our load calls and signs (in Hebrew) after 5 minutes and without any warning, the soldiers started to shoot live ammunition towards us, from which Gil's legs were hit.
* Now 6 months later he is still can’t walk propery. The Israeli army decided that the soldiers who shot us were acting according to the rule that says that everyone trying to go through the fence is a threat to the lives of the people around him.
* After this action we wrote: “In Mas'ha we experienced on our own flesh the life reality of our Palestinian brothers. By shooting (with live ammunition) us, Israeli activists, the Israeli army took a step with out precedence, and crossed another red line. However, this must remind us the daily continuation of harassment of the army in the occupied territories, where the killing, the blockade, the strangulation, the invasion and the annexation do not stop. Shooting us will not deter us from continuing the active resistance to the apartheid wall and to the cruel occupation monster”.
* Because of the shock from the fact that Israeli soldier shot another Israeli (who was himself released from the army a few weeks before the action), and also being almost the only Israeli movement that talks about the fact that the Jewish people create ghettos for other people – we had a huge interest at our group. The Israeli media started to deal not only with the Anarchist issue, but also with the problems of the fence that used to have a very good reputation before.
* A day after a big spontaneous demonstration was held in front of the security minister's office in Tel-Aviv. In one moment 300 people started blocking the road preventing the cars from moving. 8 people were arrested. For most of them it was the first action of disobedience.
* One week later, a joint direct action with Ta’ayush group was disturbanned by the police. They stopped 6 busses of activists, and prevented us from getting into the territories to Dir Balut, a village that was imprisoned by the fence. 28 people were arrested while blocking the main road of settlers in the west bank.
* The protest hasn’t stoped: Few weeks ago after the invasion to Rafa, we had a very big direct action succeeding to break the checkpoint of the Gaza Strip and go inside, as a solidarity act with the people of Rafa.
Our activities require money. As you can guess we are not a rich people and there are not many Israelis who want to donate our activitis. I brought Video cassetes of very good films about the occopation, Organic soup from Mas’ha village, CDs with this presentation and a 40 minutes movie about the new resistance against the wall, anti wall buttens, anarchist and anti occupation patches and also maps of the Wall. Please buy this stuff and help us to circulate the information. You can pay more than the price we ask and with the money that you will donate us we will buy a mobile phone and pay for our ridings in our activitis in the territories.
==================================
* AF is the Anarchist Federation of Britain.
I have been an activist since I was 13 years old. After the murder of Rachel Corrie on March 2003, I decided to devote my time and power to the struggle against the Israeli occupation. In the last few months I'm participating in the civil protest against the "Separation Fence". As part of a group named "Anarchist Against the Wall" I've attended a lot of demo's in the occupited teritorrie as well as direct action, such as the famous cutting of the fence on the day the soldiers fired at us seriously injuring one of my friend – Gil Na’amati.
I’m here not only in the name of my group or my friends in the radical left of Israel. I’m here in the name of my good friend Mohanad from Nablus and in the name of Nazee from Mas’ha. Nazee and Mohanad not only can’t go aboard to the UK, they even can’t go outside their village or city.
My lecture will deal with:
The history of the occupation since 1947
The history of the aparthaid wall
How does it look and what does it do to the Palestinians
And then I’ll show a short movie (of 4 minutes) about the new kind of resistance against the wall that started few months ago by the people who live near the wall. I’ll talk about the change in the Palestinan tactic and I’ll also review the Israeli forces that join and help this new activities.
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A short history of the occupation:
· According to the decision of the UN this should be the distribution between the Palestinians and the Jewish people who lived in Palestine. The Jewish were only 600,000 - 37% of the population, but they got 55% of the land. Almost half of the Palestinians should have been under Israeli control. This decision of the UN made Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq join to the Palestinian people in the struggle against the new state of Israel.
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· In the end of the war of 1948 – which contained horrible massacres and expulsions, 2.5 millions of Palestinians became refugees.
· In the war of 1967 Israel occupied the Golan hights, Sinai, the west bank and Gaza strip. Before 1967 only 400,000 Palestinians were residents of Israel, in the occupation of 1967 1.1 millions Palestinians were added (a lot of them were all ready refugees). Few days after the war a small Israeli radical left group “Matzpen” (“compass”) published this statement: “ occupation leads to foreign regime, that leads to resistance, that leads to oppression, that leads to terror and opposite terror. Keep holding the occupied territories will turn us to a people of murders and victims of murders”.
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· The Intifada (“rising up”) of the Palestinians that started on 1987 brought to the beginning of the “peace process” in 1993. Rabin’s government signed the Oslo agreement with the PLO and most of the Israelis felt that we are putting an end to the occupation and starting new relationships with the Palestinians and with the Arab world. But the reality in the occupied territories was different (areas A, B and C – separeted the Palestinians in to bantutsans).
· The disappointed from the so called “peace process” together with provocation in Al-Aqsa mosque, one of the holly places for the Muslims in Jerusalem of Ariel Sharon who was the leader of the opposition in the parliament at that time lead to The 2nd Intifada. Since October 2000 Palestinians fighters killed more then 1,000 Israelis. Israel re-occupied the territories and killed more then 3,000 Palestinians. Suicide bombers are the most terrified issue for most of the Israelis bringing the territories into the green line (the border between Israel to the west bank).
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· According to the Israeli government the fence is meant purely to prevent suicide bombers from getting into Israel, not to set the country's borders. The settlers feared that the fence would be made on the Green Line and leave them outside. That is why the right wings apposed the fence especially Ariel Sharon. In practice, the fence's root takes as much as it can from the land of the West Bank without considering security issues. The fence is actually a system of fences that will imprison hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in barbed wire-enclosed enclaves.
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The History of the Wall:
· Since 1994 the Gaza Strip has been surrounded by a barrier that cuts off the residents from the rest of the world (especially from the West Bank); Gazza has no economic autonomy, Israel controls everybody and everything that goes in and out of the strip.
The Fence of The Gaza Strip
· In November 2000, Prime Minister Ehud Barak (Labor party) approved the first project to build a "barrier". His election campaign was: “We are here – they are there”. The leader of the opposition, Ariel Sharon, was one of the main opponent to the idea of a fence. He didn’t want to give in the dream of “Big Israel” - from the Jordan to the sea.
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· In June 2002, the new government of Israel, leading by Ariel Sharon, decided to build a physical barrier to separate Israel and the West Bank in order to prevent the uncontrolled entry of Palestinians into Israel. Construction of the Wall, including land confiscation and the uprooting of trees in Jenin.
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· Only In September 2002, the first public map of the Wall-consisting of only the northern part -was made available to the public.
· In March 2003 Sharon declared the expansion of the Wall by building a wall within and along the entire Jordan Valley, bringing the settlements in this area under total Israeli control.
· In July 2003, the Israeli defense Ministry announced the completion of the "first phase" of the Wall, a total of 145 km from the planned 728 km . The Israeli government allotted an additional $171 million for the construction of the Wall. The Wall costs some $3 billion, approximately $4 million per kilometer. On any given day have 500 bulldozers at work, paving and building one of the largest projects in the history of the country.
· Currently, it has been already built in the districts of Qalqiliya, Tulkarem and Jenin (from salem to masha) and being built in Ramallah, Jerusalem, and Bethlehem. In 2005, the entire project should be finished.
· Besides the horrific humanistic and economic reality that the wall imposes on the Palestinian people, the wall is the biggest environmental disaster in the history of Israel.
http://www.af-north.org/wall2.htm
What does it look like?
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* Actually it’s a system of electric fences, barbed wire, trenches, patrol roads, trace paths, cameras and sensors. The fence it self is 3 meters high.
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* The concrete Wall, now present in Qalqiliya, parts of Tulkarem and East Jerusalem (always near houses) is 8 meters high – twice the height of the Berlin Wall - with armed watchtowers and a "buffer zone"of 30-100 meters. The Wall's "buffer zone" paves the way for demolitions and the expulsion of nearby residents as in many places the Wall is located just meters away from homes, shops, and schools.
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* The Israeli military has created gates in the Wall; however these do not provide any guarantee for farmers to access their land but instead creates system of permits and checkpoints where Palestinians are humiliated.xxxx
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* This is in addition to more then 600 checkpoints that the Israeli army made in the last 3 years. 56 of them are permanent and the others are changing and most of the time blocking the roads without any soldiers but with stones. This creates a system of only-Jewish roads all over the west bank. This is one of the evil faces of the occupation preventing the people the freedom of movement and letting them waited for hours and being controlled by young soldiers.
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* It’s important to remember that the Israeli army controls both of the sides of the fence (!).xxx
The Route of the wall
* The Wall is not being built on, or in most cases near, the 1967 Green Line, but rather cuts deep into the West Bank, 6-7 km from the green line
* Isolating communities into cantons, closed-off by an "Isolation Barrier" ensuring they are surrounded on all sides.
* The lands between the Wall and the Green Line have been declared by Israel as a “seam zone” whereby all residents and lands owners must obtain a permit to remain in their homes and on their lands. 11,700 people in 13 villages will be imprisoned between the wall and the green line. This not includes over 200,000 residents of East Jerusalem, who will be totally isolated from the rest of the West Bank.
* 98 % of the settler population will be included in the Israeli side of the fence. At the demand of the Israeli settlers, the wall is planned to move far further to the east, to include the settlements of Ariel, Emanuel and Kedumim. This will increase dramatically the number of Palestinians who will be affected by the wall.
* The control of the water sources is an important motivation for the Israeli government in steeling the land in north-west bank area. This land sits above the mountain aquifer (a huge underground reservoir) witch is one of the main water sources for central Israel (providing 600 million kub’ of water every year).
* The wall is expected to have a devastating impact on the lives of some 210,000 Palestinians, living in 67 towns or villages.
* If the east fences will be built The Palestinian population in the West Bank and Gaza Strip would live on only 12% of historic Palestine.
Creating Ghettos
* The Wall encircles regions with the highest Palestinian population density into ghettos. The isolation from basic services in these areas along with the loss of land, markets, and resources, equates to the inability for communities to sustain themselves adequately and with dignity.
* Farming is a primary source of income in the Palestinian communities situated along the barrier's route, an area that constitutes one of the most fertile areas in the West Bank. The harm to the farming sector will have and already has drastic economic effects on the residents and drive many families into poverty.
* The barrier will also significantly reduce access of the population to the hospitals in nearby cities. The educational system will also be harmed because many teachers come from outside the communities in which they teach.
* According to the Israeli state’s report from 2002, most of the Palestinians who did attacks in Israel entered the country through the checkpoints situated along the Green Line, and not through the open areas between the checkpoints. This why the current rout has little to do with the security of Israeli civilians.
* In the past, Israel used "imperative military needs" to justify expropriation of land to establish settlements and argued that the action was temporary. The settlements have for some time been facts on the ground. It is reasonable to assume that, as in the case of the settlements, the separation barrier will become a permanent fact to support Israel's future claim to take additional land.
* Qualqiliya is one of the cities which became a huge prison. The wall sarronding Qalqiliya completely, leaving one opening guarded by two checkpoints. The city, once was the centre of commerce, is ding these days with more and more people who leaves it to the village area tring to live from farmring.
* Jerusalem - The Wall in Jerusalem and the ring of settelments around it, furthering the completing the isolation of Jerusalem from the West Bank. At the same time, the Wall rips through villages and neighborhoods, separating families, cutting social and economic ties, and ghettoizing areas.
* Its not separating the Israelis from Palestinians but separating Palestinians from each other and from there livelihood, schools, hospitals and all municipal services.
The new kind of resistance against the wall:
* Almost every morning the residents of villages located on the planned route of the separation fence - wake up to the noise of the bulldozers. In the early morning the heavy machinery rumbles into the area, surrounded by security guards and army.
* The construction of the barrier has brought new restrictions on movement for Palestinians living near the barrier's route, in addition to the widespread restrictions that have been in place since the outbreak of the current Intifada. You can 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 attacks and the armed fighters.
* Almost every day the villagers go out to their land: men and women, young and old. They position themselves opposite the soldiers, wave flags and try to get to the machines or sit down on the ground in an attempt to block them.
* Violence would usually break out after the demonstration disperses. Usually soldiers would shoot rubber coated metal bullets, shock grenades and tear gas at the crowd. Soldiers would sometimes even enter the village and chase people into houses.
* For their part, the young people would respond with stone throwing from a distance of 100 meters, and it's obvious that this is symbolic and can't really hurt anyone. Sometimes three hours of an encounter go by without one stone being thrown, and then suddenly the soldiers “lose it” and start throwing tear-gas and then all hell breaks loose.
* The Palestinian Authority has played a very small role in the events of the past few months. The current uprising started from below, from people who watch their land being taken.
* 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 who also document the events on video. Although the form of organization is anarchistic in the sense of no centralized power and direct participatory democracy, not all the participants consider themselves as anarchists.
* Since the end of 2003 the group has been mostly active in supporting Palestinian demonstrations against the wall. The main aims are to reduce the threat of violence against the Palestinians and to increase media attention.
* We believe that a nonviolent struggle puts more pressure on the Israelis. When the army has to deal with civilians, it has to bring in a far larger number of soldiers. They can't open fire at them freely, or at least we hope not.
* In spite of the best efforts by organizers, almost every week of demonstrations ends with at least a few wounded. 262 people have been injured and 5 killed in the village Biddu (near Jerusalem). One of those killed was a boy of 11.
* Budrus, a small village close to the Green Line, Since November 2003 has been the model for what has come to be called “The Third Intifada”: Popular resistance to the wall by whole villages.
* In January two brothers from Budrus 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, 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.
* On March 29, at Bitunia (near 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 Jonathan Pollak among them, attempted to block its progress. The driver 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 which kept going and even speeded up. 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.
* On March 12, Itai Levinsky was injured in Hirbata. The army simply fired rubber bullets like crazy. Itai was standing in front and talking to the soldiers by the megaphone. At every demonstration we talk to the soldiers by a megaphone and tell them that this is a quiet demonstration of Palestinians, Israelis and internationals. While Itay was talking on the megaphone he took a rubber bullet between his nose and his left eye.
* The day when an Israeli will be killed is approaching. Of 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 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. What they are doing now is shooting the Palestinian peace camp.
* The participation of women in this struglle is uniqe. The Palestinian women don’t usually get the opportunity to get involve with politic actions. The dacition of letting the women to go to the demonstrations and talk with the soldairs and block the buldozers the Palestinians arren not only a better coverage in the media but also give more power the the women them selfs. I believe it is sing of a women’s lib from a very old tradition of a patriachal sociaty. Some of the demonstrations are for womens only, organized by the women of the village combining Israeli and Palestinians femenist activists.
The Israeli Position
· The settlers
· Likud
· Labor and Meretz
· Radical left wings (Anti-Zionist)
Israeli resistance against the occupation since October 2000:
* Ta’ayush: A join Israeli-Palestinian group that was created after the beginning of the 2nd Intifada (October 2000). This month was one of the only cases that the Palestinians who lives in Israel actively resisted and raise their voice in solidarity with their brothers in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. “Ta’ayush” (“partnership” in Arabic) are doing many actions in the territories: bringing food to cities in closer and helping farmers to work their land
* Gush-shalom: An Israeli group that was created by Uri and Rachel Avnery after the decision of Rabin’s government in 1992 to expulse 415 Hamas members to Lebanon. That was an important moment for the extreme Israeli left who started to understand that this “left” government is not what he thinks or hopes it will be.
* Others groups: Women’s Coalition [a short movie of them is available], Machsom Watch, The Israeli committee against house demolitions, Rabbis for Peace, the different groups of refusers (the young one who refuses to go to the army at all, the reserves who don’t agree to serve in the occupied territories, the pilots and more. More than 600 refusers)
* Black Laundry: a group of gays and lesbians fighting together for queer rights, feminist issues, social justice and against the occupation. It was created for the Tel-Aviv gay parade on 2001, few months after the beginning of the second Intifada. People were murdered in the territories and we felt that we can’t celebrate as usual. In the beginning it was not clear for the left activists why we should come as gays to demonstrations against the wall, but after a lot of actions and discussions I can say that our visibility is accepted and welcome. This, I can’t really say about our Palestinians partners so in the territories we usually go back to the closet. Mas’ha camp was unique in this aspect.
* Independent activists working with the ISM: many Israelis worked with the ISM, but there was a feeling of need to make the fact that Israelis were resisting (in the same methods of the ISM) - important, both for the Israeli public and for the Palestinian public (and also internationally). Israelis also come from a different perspective and culture then the internationals and it’s important to create an autonomist group resisting together with Palestinians and internationals but as a separate group.
* After a few actions against the wall in Israel and Palestine, a small group started to come together and started building a trusted reputation of Israeli direct action activists willing to struggle together with local Palestinians against the wall.
* In March 2003 the village of Mas’ha invited the group to build a protest tent on the land of the village that was being stolen for the wall (98% of Mas’ha land was taken). The protest camp was created and became a center of struggle and information against the planned construction in the area and in the whole west bank. Over the 4 months of the camp more than thousand of Internationals and Israelis came to the camp to learn about the situation and join the struggle.
* In August 2003, we've found out that in the morning the construstors of the wall intend to start working inside Hani Ammer's yard at the edge of the village of Mas'ha. In order to construct the wall inside the yard. Several structures had to be destroyed (crippling ammer's sources of income) and the final plan is to have his yard surrounded with fences (from four sides), and to "allow" his family and visitors to enter and exit the yard only on specific times during the day (as if it were a prison camp). Early morning 5th of August all structures but the house itseld were destroyed, a total of more than 60 Palestinian, Israeli and international activists were sleeping in the tent on that night and they detained and were arrested. The next day, 28 Israelis came again and we managed to stop the bulldozers from destroying Hani’s yard for a few hours. Then, the army arrested us all.
* During the camp a direct action group calling itself “Anarchist Against the Fence”, or: “Jewish Against Ghettos”, or simply: “Anarchist against walls”, was created. We started to make graffiti on the wall, as well as put a giant poster on it. The group also held many joint actions across the territories. For example: Salem (July), Anin (August) and Zbube (9th November) in which we succeeded in breaking the fence. These actions built a growing reputation in the Palestinian public but got almost no attention from the Israeli press and media.
* December 26, 2003 might be 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 Mas’ha. This action had a big impact on the struggle against the fence. We came to the gate of the apartheid fence built between Ma’sha to the settlement Elkana. Against all of the army's promises, at the few previous weeks the gate stayed shut, and prevented the people of Ma’sha from reaching their fields and sources of income. The soldiers started to shoot in the air and on the ground near us. In spite of our load calls and signs (in Hebrew) after 5 minutes and without any warning, the soldiers started to shoot live ammunition towards us, from which Gil's legs were hit.
* Now 6 months later he is still can’t walk propery. The Israeli army decided that the soldiers who shot us were acting according to the rule that says that everyone trying to go through the fence is a threat to the lives of the people around him.
* After this action we wrote: “In Mas'ha we experienced on our own flesh the life reality of our Palestinian brothers. By shooting (with live ammunition) us, Israeli activists, the Israeli army took a step with out precedence, and crossed another red line. However, this must remind us the daily continuation of harassment of the army in the occupied territories, where the killing, the blockade, the strangulation, the invasion and the annexation do not stop. Shooting us will not deter us from continuing the active resistance to the apartheid wall and to the cruel occupation monster”.
* Because of the shock from the fact that Israeli soldier shot another Israeli (who was himself released from the army a few weeks before the action), and also being almost the only Israeli movement that talks about the fact that the Jewish people create ghettos for other people – we had a huge interest at our group. The Israeli media started to deal not only with the Anarchist issue, but also with the problems of the fence that used to have a very good reputation before.
* A day after a big spontaneous demonstration was held in front of the security minister's office in Tel-Aviv. In one moment 300 people started blocking the road preventing the cars from moving. 8 people were arrested. For most of them it was the first action of disobedience.
* One week later, a joint direct action with Ta’ayush group was disturbanned by the police. They stopped 6 busses of activists, and prevented us from getting into the territories to Dir Balut, a village that was imprisoned by the fence. 28 people were arrested while blocking the main road of settlers in the west bank.
* The protest hasn’t stoped: Few weeks ago after the invasion to Rafa, we had a very big direct action succeeding to break the checkpoint of the Gaza Strip and go inside, as a solidarity act with the people of Rafa.
Our activities require money. As you can guess we are not a rich people and there are not many Israelis who want to donate our activitis. I brought Video cassetes of very good films about the occopation, Organic soup from Mas’ha village, CDs with this presentation and a 40 minutes movie about the new resistance against the wall, anti wall buttens, anarchist and anti occupation patches and also maps of the Wall. Please buy this stuff and help us to circulate the information. You can pay more than the price we ask and with the money that you will donate us we will buy a mobile phone and pay for our ridings in our activitis in the territories.
==================================
* AF is the Anarchist Federation of Britain.
Thursday, July 15, 2004
Israel-Palestine, Media, [mashacamp] FROM HAGUE TO MAS'HA by Tanya Reinhart* 15/07/04
The International Court of Justice has determined that Israel “has the right, and indeed the duty, to…protect the life of its citizens” but that “the measures taken are bound nonetheless to remain in conformity with applicable international law.” The Court found the present route of the separation fence or wall to be a serious and egregious violation of international law. In an interview given last weekend, Israeli Chief of Staff Moshe (Bogie) Ya’alon contested the applicability of international law. Such a system was appropriate for the conditions of World War II, he declared, but not for the present war on terror. Apparently, as Ya’alon envisions it, in this war the armed forces are bound only by their own law. Indeed, a battle is being waged in the world today over the status of international law. While the US and Israel are agitating for its nullification, the rest of the world understands that international law, as the framework that governs the conduct of states, is a necessary apparatus for the preservation of society. Even if it does not always function perfectly, without international law there is a danger that large segments of the human race will simply be wiped out, as we Jews learned through our own terrible experience during World War II.
The International Court’s ruling lists the numerous articles of the Fourth Geneva Convention that the present route of the barrier violates, noting that “there is also a risk of further alterations to the demographic composition of the Occupied Palestinian Territory resulting from…the departure of Palestinian populations from certain areas” (paragraph 122). In simpler language, the Court is warning of transfer.
The word “transfer” evokes the collective memory of trucks arriving in the middle of the night to transport Palestinian villagers across the border, which happened in a number of places in 1948. But transfer on that model is not possible in today’s world. Now transfer must be accomplished more slowly and surreptitiously. The current barrier cuts off 400,000 Palestinians from their source of livelihood and imprisons them in isolated enclaves. With no means of subsistence, they will be forced to leave those enclaves over the next few years to seek employment at the peripheries of West Bank cities and towns. In this way, sections of the West Bank that border on Israel will be “cleansed” of Palestinians. In Qalqilya and Tul Karm, where the fence was completed a year ago, it is already happening. It would have been possible to build the fence on the Israeli side of Qalqilya, as the original plan proposed. That is a much shorter route, and would have been easier to guard and protect than the present line, which surrounds Qalqilya on all sides and cuts through West Bank territory. But the builders of the barrier along its present route were guided not by security considerations but rather by the old vision of redeeming the land and purifying it of Arabs. The only difference is that today it is possible to hide this behind talk of a war on terror.
A year ago, the wall extended from Tul Karm and Qalqilya to the town of Mas’ha, near the Jewish settlement of Elkana. Like others before them, the people of Mas’ha were expected to sit and watch as their olive groves their source of income for centuries were transferred to the Israeli side of the wall. But the people of Mas’ha united to show that another way is possible. They erected protest tents next to the route of the bulldozers and called upon Israelis to join them. For months, Israelis and Palestinians sat together in the path of the wall that was being built day by day. Nazeeh Shalaby, a farmer from Mas’ha who lost all his land, was the moving spirit in the camp. “Until you arrived,” he told me this week, “I didn’t have any idea that there were Israelis who want to live with us in peace.”
The protest camp at Mas’ha didn’t succeed in stopping the wall. The encampment was evacuated and the army used live ammunition on the Israeli protestors who climbed and shook the fence. Gil Na’amati of Kibbutz Re’im lost there his knee. But now the International Court has ruled that Israel must immediately dismantle the sections of the wall that have been built inside the West Bank and move them to the Green Line. This should begin at once with the dismantling of the wall at Mas’ha.
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* [Ed. Note: Tanya Reinhardt is an academian that have a column in the Israeli main daily Yediot Aharonot.... and is also an anarchist activist involved in the struggle against the wall.]
The International Court’s ruling lists the numerous articles of the Fourth Geneva Convention that the present route of the barrier violates, noting that “there is also a risk of further alterations to the demographic composition of the Occupied Palestinian Territory resulting from…the departure of Palestinian populations from certain areas” (paragraph 122). In simpler language, the Court is warning of transfer.
The word “transfer” evokes the collective memory of trucks arriving in the middle of the night to transport Palestinian villagers across the border, which happened in a number of places in 1948. But transfer on that model is not possible in today’s world. Now transfer must be accomplished more slowly and surreptitiously. The current barrier cuts off 400,000 Palestinians from their source of livelihood and imprisons them in isolated enclaves. With no means of subsistence, they will be forced to leave those enclaves over the next few years to seek employment at the peripheries of West Bank cities and towns. In this way, sections of the West Bank that border on Israel will be “cleansed” of Palestinians. In Qalqilya and Tul Karm, where the fence was completed a year ago, it is already happening. It would have been possible to build the fence on the Israeli side of Qalqilya, as the original plan proposed. That is a much shorter route, and would have been easier to guard and protect than the present line, which surrounds Qalqilya on all sides and cuts through West Bank territory. But the builders of the barrier along its present route were guided not by security considerations but rather by the old vision of redeeming the land and purifying it of Arabs. The only difference is that today it is possible to hide this behind talk of a war on terror.
A year ago, the wall extended from Tul Karm and Qalqilya to the town of Mas’ha, near the Jewish settlement of Elkana. Like others before them, the people of Mas’ha were expected to sit and watch as their olive groves their source of income for centuries were transferred to the Israeli side of the wall. But the people of Mas’ha united to show that another way is possible. They erected protest tents next to the route of the bulldozers and called upon Israelis to join them. For months, Israelis and Palestinians sat together in the path of the wall that was being built day by day. Nazeeh Shalaby, a farmer from Mas’ha who lost all his land, was the moving spirit in the camp. “Until you arrived,” he told me this week, “I didn’t have any idea that there were Israelis who want to live with us in peace.”
The protest camp at Mas’ha didn’t succeed in stopping the wall. The encampment was evacuated and the army used live ammunition on the Israeli protestors who climbed and shook the fence. Gil Na’amati of Kibbutz Re’im lost there his knee. But now the International Court has ruled that Israel must immediately dismantle the sections of the wall that have been built inside the West Bank and move them to the Green Line. This should begin at once with the dismantling of the wall at Mas’ha.
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* [Ed. Note: Tanya Reinhardt is an academian that have a column in the Israeli main daily Yediot Aharonot.... and is also an anarchist activist involved in the struggle against the wall.]
Monday, July 5, 2004
Israel-Palestine, Fig leaf to war crimes by Ïsraeli High Court of ¨Justice 05/07/04
This morning, the hard-fought struggle around "The Separation Wall" was transplanted - from the environment of sun-baked West Bank hills and churning bulldozers and uprooted olive trees and exploding tear gas canisters, and into the exquisitely neat hall of the Supreme Court in Jerusalem. That hall was highly crowded as we waited tensely for the final verdict. A lot has gone into the particular case before the court this morning. Should the wall go up along the planned route, Beit Surik and Bidu and six other villages north-east of Jerusalem stand to lose most of their agricultural land and become an isolated enclave, surrounded and enclosed on almost all sides. The villagers' tenacious struggle and refusal to give up their land, their daily unarmed marches towards the encroaching bulldozers, had already cost five of them their lives - three of these being shot down during a single bloody day at Bidu. This struggle succeeded in arousing the sympathy and solidarity of quite a few Israelis: young anarchists who came day after day to share in their struggle and the risk; the people of Mevaseret Tzion, the Israeli town right across the pre-'67 border from Beit Surik, many of whose inhabitants joined in the appeal against the route of the fence supposedly intended for their own security; the ex-generals organised in "The council for Peace and Security" who presented an affidavit stating, on the basis of their professional reputation, that the route of the fence was wrong from the purely military point of view...
Israelis and Palestinians involved in the struggle were there in big numbers this morning - as were quite a few representatives of the other side, military officers and security operatives with their inevitable sunglasses. Several people had with them this morning's Ha'aretz, in which the editorial enumerated the great hardships caused to Palestinian population by the Wall and called for amelioration, without once mentioning the fact (obviously known to the editors) that the judges were to rule today on the very same issue.
In the last few minutes before the judges' entry, intensive speculation and hot debates between optimists and pessimists flared up. "What do you think? What can we hope for?" asked anxioulsy a young activist who just a few days ago spent time in police detention, following the anti-Wall demo at A-Ram. "Better not expect too much. Very often these kind of case ends in a colorless, vague compromise" warned a grizzled, white-haired lawyer. But when Supreme Court President Aharon Barak filed in a few minutes later, flanked by his colleagues Eliyahu Mazza and Mishael Cheshin, he was sharp and incisive from beginning to end of his presentation.
"We have been presented with an appeal by the inhabitants of several Palestinian villages, disputing eight separate confiscation orders whose purpose is the building of the Separation Fence.
"First, we had to deal with the fundamental issue: does the government has the authority to build a fence within Judea and Samaria and confiscate land for that purpose? It is our definite opinion that, were the fence built in order to achieve political purposes, its building would have been utterly inconsistent with International Law and thus illegal. However, we reject the appellants' contention that such was the government's purpose in building the fence. We see no reason to dispute the state's position that the purpose is purely one of defence against a threat to the security of Israel's citizens, threatened by suicide bombers. But even having the authority to build the fence, the government is duty bound to keep the right balance security needs with the rights and interests of the local population which might get hurt by its erection. The government's duty to act with proportionality, to cause no more damage than absolutely necessary, is laid down explicitly both in International Law and in the Israeli administrative law - and the state did not give proper consideration to that duty. While the security considerations are highly important, due consideration must be given to the fact that the fence damages the daily life of thirty-five thousand local inhabitants. Thousands of dunums [Dunum = about 1/4 acre.Ed.] are taken up by the fence route itself. Tens of thousands dunums more are cut off from their owners. The proposed permits regime, which would give access to the land under restrictive conditions cannot significantly reduce the damage. [Through earlier appeals, the Supreme Court was made aware that in villages where the Separation Fence was already erected, the army is often keeping closed the 'agriculatural gates' which are supposed to give farmers access to their land - in many cases causing irreversible damage to plantings left untended. ed.]. The entire fabric of daily life in around the fence is severally damage.
In light of the above, we rule that the military commander had not taken proper care to balance security needs with the interests and needs of local population, and that he must reconsider and and reduce the damage to these needs and interests (even if it cannot be completely avoided).
While we recognize the state's contention that the original route gives an additional amount of security as compared to the proposed alternative routes, such as the one proposed by the Council for Peace and Security. But this addition is the amount of security is not proportional to the severe damage caused by the proposed route of the fence would cause to the local population - damage which can be significantly reduced by defining a new route. Therefore, the state has not fulfilled its duty of acting with proportionality.
In conclusion, we declare six of the eight confiscation orders subjected to our consideration null and void, we uphold one of them, and we order the state to reconsider the last one in light of the principles we have set forth."
Commentators on the radio soon made the import more plain: 30 kilometers of fence, out of the 40 dealt with in this case, would have to be changed; three kilometers of already erected fence would need to be torn down, and in other section the army would have to make restitution for the damage caused by its "infrastructure work", especially the cutting down of hundreds of olive trees.
In a parting blow, the judges ordered the state to pay the Palestinian appellants twenty thousand Shekels in lawyers' fees - which, in terms of the Supreme Court's etiquette, may be considered a high indication of the court's disapproval of the government's case.
=====================
Referense: Search google for ´anarchists against the wall´ + ´ainfos´
Israelis and Palestinians involved in the struggle were there in big numbers this morning - as were quite a few representatives of the other side, military officers and security operatives with their inevitable sunglasses. Several people had with them this morning's Ha'aretz, in which the editorial enumerated the great hardships caused to Palestinian population by the Wall and called for amelioration, without once mentioning the fact (obviously known to the editors) that the judges were to rule today on the very same issue.
In the last few minutes before the judges' entry, intensive speculation and hot debates between optimists and pessimists flared up. "What do you think? What can we hope for?" asked anxioulsy a young activist who just a few days ago spent time in police detention, following the anti-Wall demo at A-Ram. "Better not expect too much. Very often these kind of case ends in a colorless, vague compromise" warned a grizzled, white-haired lawyer. But when Supreme Court President Aharon Barak filed in a few minutes later, flanked by his colleagues Eliyahu Mazza and Mishael Cheshin, he was sharp and incisive from beginning to end of his presentation.
"We have been presented with an appeal by the inhabitants of several Palestinian villages, disputing eight separate confiscation orders whose purpose is the building of the Separation Fence.
"First, we had to deal with the fundamental issue: does the government has the authority to build a fence within Judea and Samaria and confiscate land for that purpose? It is our definite opinion that, were the fence built in order to achieve political purposes, its building would have been utterly inconsistent with International Law and thus illegal. However, we reject the appellants' contention that such was the government's purpose in building the fence. We see no reason to dispute the state's position that the purpose is purely one of defence against a threat to the security of Israel's citizens, threatened by suicide bombers. But even having the authority to build the fence, the government is duty bound to keep the right balance security needs with the rights and interests of the local population which might get hurt by its erection. The government's duty to act with proportionality, to cause no more damage than absolutely necessary, is laid down explicitly both in International Law and in the Israeli administrative law - and the state did not give proper consideration to that duty. While the security considerations are highly important, due consideration must be given to the fact that the fence damages the daily life of thirty-five thousand local inhabitants. Thousands of dunums [Dunum = about 1/4 acre.Ed.] are taken up by the fence route itself. Tens of thousands dunums more are cut off from their owners. The proposed permits regime, which would give access to the land under restrictive conditions cannot significantly reduce the damage. [Through earlier appeals, the Supreme Court was made aware that in villages where the Separation Fence was already erected, the army is often keeping closed the 'agriculatural gates' which are supposed to give farmers access to their land - in many cases causing irreversible damage to plantings left untended. ed.]. The entire fabric of daily life in around the fence is severally damage.
In light of the above, we rule that the military commander had not taken proper care to balance security needs with the interests and needs of local population, and that he must reconsider and and reduce the damage to these needs and interests (even if it cannot be completely avoided).
While we recognize the state's contention that the original route gives an additional amount of security as compared to the proposed alternative routes, such as the one proposed by the Council for Peace and Security. But this addition is the amount of security is not proportional to the severe damage caused by the proposed route of the fence would cause to the local population - damage which can be significantly reduced by defining a new route. Therefore, the state has not fulfilled its duty of acting with proportionality.
In conclusion, we declare six of the eight confiscation orders subjected to our consideration null and void, we uphold one of them, and we order the state to reconsider the last one in light of the principles we have set forth."
Commentators on the radio soon made the import more plain: 30 kilometers of fence, out of the 40 dealt with in this case, would have to be changed; three kilometers of already erected fence would need to be torn down, and in other section the army would have to make restitution for the damage caused by its "infrastructure work", especially the cutting down of hundreds of olive trees.
In a parting blow, the judges ordered the state to pay the Palestinian appellants twenty thousand Shekels in lawyers' fees - which, in terms of the Supreme Court's etiquette, may be considered a high indication of the court's disapproval of the government's case.
=====================
Referense: Search google for ´anarchists against the wall´ + ´ainfos´
Wednesday, June 16, 2004
Israel/Palestine: The Anarchosyndicalist Initiative 16/06/04
THE ANARCHO-SYNDICALIST INITIAVE IN ISRAEL/PALESTINE A las Barricadas! Por el triunfo de la Confederacion! Dear Comrades, In a meeting of the comrades of the Anarcho-Syndicalist Initiative in Israel/Palestine, we decided to carry forward the project of building genuine revolutionary syndicalist organization of the working class. We decided to ask for affiliation to the IWA and to be in the status of Friends of the International Workers Association. We are intending to introduce in the next month our Manifesto.
The recent years have been terribly bad to the Israeli and Palestinian workers. No political organization or party offers any kind of way forward; all of them are serving the ruling capitalist elites - all of them are nothing but loyal servants of the workers' enemies. The state-owned trade unions in Israel and the corrupted trade unions in the Palestinian Authority have nothing to propose but compromises with the big capital, alliances with some "progressive" bourgeois elements and rude betrayal. The revolutionary anarcho-syndicalist program of the ASI asks for multinational workers' unity, joint struggle of toilers in this country and the region, against the Zionist movement headed by the local capitalists, the Arab reaction headed by the Palestinian Liberation Organization [PLO] and the Islamists and the collaborative regimes headed by the loyal puppets of the US imperialism.
As anarcho-syndicalists, we are standing for a society based on free confederation of revolutionary syndicates and general congress of labor, for a free and equal society led by the laboring masses of the Middle East and the world. We are admiring our friends in countries like the United States, France, Britain, Spain, Germany and other countries, who are doing courageous and great work against the ruling classes and their agents, and for genuine syndicalist revolution.
We would like to thank Braden Cannon from the IWW for his support, Mitch from the Workers Solidarity Alliance, Thomas from the CNT-AIT, Ullus from the FAU in Berlin and other comrades and friends.
Revolutionary Syndicalist Greetings
The recent years have been terribly bad to the Israeli and Palestinian workers. No political organization or party offers any kind of way forward; all of them are serving the ruling capitalist elites - all of them are nothing but loyal servants of the workers' enemies. The state-owned trade unions in Israel and the corrupted trade unions in the Palestinian Authority have nothing to propose but compromises with the big capital, alliances with some "progressive" bourgeois elements and rude betrayal. The revolutionary anarcho-syndicalist program of the ASI asks for multinational workers' unity, joint struggle of toilers in this country and the region, against the Zionist movement headed by the local capitalists, the Arab reaction headed by the Palestinian Liberation Organization [PLO] and the Islamists and the collaborative regimes headed by the loyal puppets of the US imperialism.
As anarcho-syndicalists, we are standing for a society based on free confederation of revolutionary syndicates and general congress of labor, for a free and equal society led by the laboring masses of the Middle East and the world. We are admiring our friends in countries like the United States, France, Britain, Spain, Germany and other countries, who are doing courageous and great work against the ruling classes and their agents, and for genuine syndicalist revolution.
We would like to thank Braden Cannon from the IWW for his support, Mitch from the Workers Solidarity Alliance, Thomas from the CNT-AIT, Ullus from the FAU in Berlin and other comrades and friends.
Revolutionary Syndicalist Greetings
Tuesday, June 15, 2004
Israel, Haifa, a new Anarchist Discussion Group 15/06/04
This June 20th, at 19:00 - 27th Pevzner St. will host an opening session of a Haifa based Anarchist discussion group. The purpose of this group is twofold: First, we wish to expose ourselves to revolutionary Anarchist thought, study it and discuss it. Our scope will not be limited to some specific field, and the group will touch both upon classic and modern works, and according to the wishes of the group members, we may also deal with the Anarchist linkages of specific subjects (such as Ecology, Queer Theory, Man-Animal relations, Military and Police vs. Society, etc.) Additionally, we hope the activity of the group may lend some substance to the otherwise ephemeral existance of Anarchism in the Haifa area - turn it into something more than faint whispers sometimes carried on the air.
The intended membership is both people with some theoretic background in radical or Anarchist thought, both (or perhaps especially) those not in 'the thick of things', but consider Anarchism a current of though and a point of view which they wish to familiarize themselves with, or adopt. The only prerequisite is an open mind: the belief that the society in which we live can and should be changed, the wish to be exposed to information, and the willingness to contribute thought and attention; thus we may be able to hold dynamic and vibrant discourse, placing the question mark on all that which our daily lives present to us as obvious and necessary.
Those of you willing to participate - we would ask you to also give some thoughts to possible texts (articles, books, films) on these subjects which you would like to the group to share, or even such that you have not yet read, and whose reading you wish to make more of a group experience. We, of course, have some suggestions of our own...
The first session - an introduction and an acquaintance, towards a decision on a permanent schedule and specific texts and subjects for future discussion - will be held, as mentioned above, on Sunday the 20th of June, at 'The Melange': 27 Pevzner Street, Haifa, near the municipal theater hall. Our vision is of bi-weekly meetings of several hours each.
PS 1 - Circumstances demand that the discussion language be Hebrew (and some English); we are not able to parley in Arabic. We apologize for this inconvenience, and hope that those of you who are Palestinian may still find it possible to participate if you so wish.
PS 2 - You may find more information regarding the 'Pevzner 27' project at: http://www.haifa.is.dreaming.org/
PS 3 - For further details, please contact haifa_anarchists-A-yahoo.com or eyalroz-A-technion.ac.il
The intended membership is both people with some theoretic background in radical or Anarchist thought, both (or perhaps especially) those not in 'the thick of things', but consider Anarchism a current of though and a point of view which they wish to familiarize themselves with, or adopt. The only prerequisite is an open mind: the belief that the society in which we live can and should be changed, the wish to be exposed to information, and the willingness to contribute thought and attention; thus we may be able to hold dynamic and vibrant discourse, placing the question mark on all that which our daily lives present to us as obvious and necessary.
Those of you willing to participate - we would ask you to also give some thoughts to possible texts (articles, books, films) on these subjects which you would like to the group to share, or even such that you have not yet read, and whose reading you wish to make more of a group experience. We, of course, have some suggestions of our own...
The first session - an introduction and an acquaintance, towards a decision on a permanent schedule and specific texts and subjects for future discussion - will be held, as mentioned above, on Sunday the 20th of June, at 'The Melange': 27 Pevzner Street, Haifa, near the municipal theater hall. Our vision is of bi-weekly meetings of several hours each.
PS 1 - Circumstances demand that the discussion language be Hebrew (and some English); we are not able to parley in Arabic. We apologize for this inconvenience, and hope that those of you who are Palestinian may still find it possible to participate if you so wish.
PS 2 - You may find more information regarding the 'Pevzner 27' project at: http://www.haifa.is.dreaming.org/
PS 3 - For further details, please contact haifa_anarchists-A-yahoo.com or eyalroz-A-technion.ac.il
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