While You Were Gone: Episode III
(Hebron, West Bank, Palestine, December 19, 2003) I've written the following before: "Every time my wife and I leave Palestine and Israel and head for home--when our visas are about to run out--we hope that things won't get worse here while we are back in the States; but sadly we know they will.
And, sure enough, they do.
Similarly, when we come back from the U. S. we hope that things won't get worse once we get back to the territories; but sadly we know they will.
And they do.
For example, when we left Palestine back in early June, the two story high imposing photo-mural (in color) of Yassir Arafat, which had been removed the year before from its place of prominence above the entrance to Hebron's Municipal Building, was still down. (Hebron is Hamas country.) But as soon as it was clear that he was mortally ill, the sign suddenly reappeared, the week before last. "He is our national symbol of resistance," more than one Hebron resident, critics all of Arafat's domestic administration, said; "and for that we honor him."
Following the before dawn confirming announcement of his expected death, and as
light began to replace the dark, the most militant acknowledgment of that assessment
was the plumes of black smoke from burning tires placed every hundred yards that
could be seen rising somberly skyward along the main road heading north up from Bab
iZaweyya to Halhoul three miles away. (Bab iZaweyya is the Palestinian market area
in H1 area closest to the tiny ultra orthodox ultra nationalist Old City Jewish
settlements in the center of H2.)
At midmorning stores, which had opened briefly, began closing out of deference to
his memory without any prompting by the Israeli Army. Soldiers and Border police,
however, had already beefed up its presence at checkpoints leading into and out of
the Old City. A patrol of four soldiers in a jeep did sally forth briefly into Bab
iZaweyya, where they shot off a tear canister at a small group of Palestinian
bystanders standing kitty corner to them across the main intersection.
After several wary minutes, during which each group, still at a distance, eyed each
other cautiously, one of the soldiers yelled out, "If anyone throws a stone, we will
make a really tight curfew!" Some of the Palestinians rolled their eyes as if to
say, 'we know he doesn't mean it;' and almost as promptly, the soldier and his three
comrades got in the Jeep and drove back towards H2.
The soldier's threat notwithstanding, curfews, tight or otherwise, are almost
completely a form of collective restrictive and punishing episodes, which are now
part of the Israeli army's past not present. Curfews seen to have been shed in favor
of a much more relatively speaking relaxed and more effective way of keeping the lid
on: a way that requires fewer troops, and as a result is comparatively cost
effective in terms of energy, potential jeopardy, and funds expended.
Closures (selective or complete), which, of course, are both collectively
restrictive and punishing, have taken the place of curfews. I think the reason is
that the army's tacticians decided that putting a lot of troops in potential harm's
way by sending them into Palestinian village, towns, and cities to patrol streets in
order to try to insure that shops are closed and everyone is additionally humiliated
and discomfited by being shut up at home wasn't worth it. Why go to all that
possibly needless and dangerous effort, when simply not letting anyone leave or
enter town will do just as well?
It's said, that a complete closure of the entire West Bank can be accomplished in
less than five minutes. I can believe that. Since the reoccupation began almost two
and a half years ago, Israeli soldiers and Border Police have been strategically
positioned near to and often in many villages, towns, and cities. As a result they
can be quickly dispatched to easily implement rapid closure at the more than 700
checkpoints, partial checkpoints, roadblocks, heavy metal road gates, earth mounds,
earth walls, trenches, and a rising number of olive drab cylindrical observation
towers. For quite some time now the West Bank can be sealed off as effectively as
Gaza. The count of blockages around Hebron is by far the most: 206 according to a
count taken last summer. Next was Nablus at 114, Ramallah 98, Bethlehem 96 and so
on.
Despite the tight closures, a few thousand Palestinians were permitted to go to
Ramallah for Arafat's funeral or made their way in riskily and clandestinely; but
tens of thousands who wanted to be there, were blocked by the total "lock down" of
the West Bank. At midmorning I was on my way to Bethlehem in a jitney (called
"Service" and pronounced serv-ees) that was waved back into Hebron when it tried to
enter Highway 60, the main north-south by-pass highway from the Galilee through the
West Bank into the Negev. A trip that recently had been taking me non-stop about an
hour and a half to complete, took three hours this time, with enforced stops along
the way. The driver took his Palestinian passengers and me to a high earth barricade
at the north end of Halhoul. Climbing over to the other side, we caught another
Service, whose driver it turns out had sneaked onto Highway60 over back roads in the
hopes that he might make it to Bethlehem. He didn't.
First he was turned back at a floating (impromptu) checkpoint at the Gush Etzion
interchange about two thirds of the way between Hebron and Bethlehem. But out of
sight of the soldiers at the checkpoint, he instead circumvented the interchange
over more back roads and reentered Highway 60, about a mile further on, and then
sped off toward Bethlehem.
But his ruse was short lived. An army jeep came tearing up the highway from behind
and drew alongside. The driver was motioned to pull over, which he did. The jeep
darted by and stopped in front. Two soldiers jumped out and, standing in front of
the Service, pointed their guns at us. Another soldier examined everyone's ID's. The
Service and the Palestinians were ordered to turn around and head back. The soldier
told me, "You are an American. Go!" So I went; and started walking the last mile
into Bethlehem, while the Service headed off�slowly�in the other direction.
It may seem that the body of this report contradicts the premise: that the
occupation has gotten worse since Sis and I were here last. The closures could be
construed as a kind of retreat by the Israeli army from one of the more onerous
forms of collective punishment. But the truth�the truth�is that it's not an
indication of some kind of backing away, but instead an indication of the awful fact
that Israel (enabled by the U. S. government) is winning and knows it is winning its
appalling campaign to diminish Palestinian territory and to exhaust and subdue its
hapless oppressed and suppressed people.
A final example. While attention--such as it is--remains focused on the on going
construction of the "annexation" wall or barrier (the most extreme form of closure)
in the north and around Jerusalem, bull dozers recently began preparing for it in
the south. A few miles west of Hebron, path for the barrier is being carved out a
top a ridge, which will provide natural protection for dozens of olives tree west of
it, which will soon be located in Israel.
Note: This is the thirty-eighth in a series of micro-reports, commentaries, and or
analyses that I am sending routinely from the Occupied Territories and other areas
in the Middle East. If the information or ideas seem helpful, please feel free to
forward them to others. It would be a privilege to add their names to this mailing
list, if so requested. I can be reached at: jlevin0320@yahoo.com. As always I will
be grateful for any feedback-- Jerry Levin .
