The Israeli Peace Movement in Jerusalem
March 7, 2005 in both East and West Jerusalem
Crossing the Bethlehem checkpoint is becoming routine; the absurd and surreal now somehow normal. All 19 of us flash our passports reflexively to the soldier, and we after waiting our turn in a line of cars, zip right through from Bethlehem to Jerusalem where ordinary local Palestinians are forbidden to go.
ICAHD
We arrive at the Central part of West Jerusalem, just to the West of the Green Line in the Russian Compound. We are at the headquarters of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD), an Israeli group formed to resist the destruction of Palestinian homes by the Israeli Army. Its leader, Jeff Halper, was not available, so we were treated to the dynamic young Jewish-American activist Jimmy Johnson's presentation about the current Reality on the Ground.
Jimmy started with the consequences of the Oslo Accords, and finished with the unilateral measures, including the building of The Wall, by the current Sharon government during the past 4 years.
During the Oslo process, the West Bank was divided up into Areas A, B and C. Area A was to be under Palestinian Civil and Military authority; Area B under Palestinian civil authority, but Israeli or joint military authority; and Area C under Israeli Civil and Military Authority. As the maps were drawn up for Camp David, 45 % of the land in the West Bank became Area C, that is, under direct Israeli control, and under control of the settlements.
There are now more than 400,000 Israeli settlers in the West Bank if you
include the settlers in East Jerusalem. Mr. Jones explained that there
are two types of illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank: The
settlements of the extreme ideologically right-wing like Itamar, or
Kiryat Arba'a, and the settlements of convenience, like Ma'ale
Adumin, which have become Jerusalem and Tel Aviv suburbs, and are
subsidized by the Israeli Government, be it Labor or Lukid. These large
suburban settlements look like places in Southern California, with their
own Ace Hardware's, etc.
>From the Palestinian perspective, East Jerusalem has represented 40% of
the economy of the West Bank. As a result of the Wall and the
Checkpoints, East Jerusalem's Economy is being systematically
disconnected from the West Bank, and the West Bank's economy is
systematically being divided within itself through the Wall, the
Checkpoints and the Lattice work of Settlements and Bypass Roads which
service them. Only 15% of the settlements are ideological; there are
broader and more subtle forms of institutional racism inherent in the
non-ideological suburban settlements.
The wall disrupts Palestinian living patterns, separating Palestinians
from each other. It is strangling the economy of the West Bank, and also
Gaza.
Jimmy Johnson also described how Israel is the third largest Defense
contractor in the world. 20% of the United States' foreign aide to the
entire world during the past 30 years has gone to Israel. Currently
Israel receives $3-5 Billion from the United States annually, with $2
billion in military grants for defense. Consequently, American taxpayers
are bankrolling the widespread Israeli aggression that we see on the
ground in the West Bank and Gaza today.
According to Jimmy Johnson, The Wall has resulted in fewer bombing
attacks, but Qassam rocket attacks have gone up.
Rabbis for Human Rights
"In a democracy, some are guilty, but all are responsible."
Rabbi Abraham Joshua Herschel, 1972
Next, our delegation met Rabbi Arik Ascherman, who is the executive
director of Rabbis for Human Rights (RHR). Rabbi Ascherman grew up in
Erie, Pennsylvania in a Jewish family heavily influenced by Jewish
religious tradition of human rights. Since immigrating to Israel, he
naturally gravitated to civil rights issues; RHR also addresses poverty
and social issues within Israel. Rabbi Ascherman practices Civil
Disobedience "as a last resort."� He is currently awaiting trial in
Israel for acts of civil disobedience, such as standing in front of
bulldozers to prevent the demolition of Palestinian homes.
According to Rabbi Ascherman, there is a wide disconnect in Israeli
society with regard to moral issues. "Everybody has their
psycho-spiritual map, and everyone seems to limit their psycho-spiritual
map."
He feels that we are at a juncture of cautious optimism, with regard to
the prospects for peace. He believes that Palestinians and Israelis on
both sides of the conflict have learned the lessons of the breakdown of
the Oslo Peace Process.
A majority on both the Israeli and Palestinian sides know that the
compromise will be the Clinton plan, plus or minus a few details.
Since the breakdown of negotiations at the end of the Clinton and Barak
administrations, a majority on both sides tacitly supported violence as a
way to push the peace process forward. During Oslo, the Palestinians grew
frustrated with endless negotiations that lead nowhere, as Israel
continued building settlements and changing the facts on the ground, and
the tendency to fight back using violence was overwhelming.
Unfortunately, the violent second intifada decimated the peace and
justice movements in Israel.
"Terror does not move peace forward," according to Rabbi Ascherman,
"while at the same time, Israel cannot negotiate peace, while
systematically violating the human rights of Palestinians."� Both sides
need to learn from the mistakes of the past to move forward.
Rabbi Ascherman took us to the Palestinian Village on the outskirts of
Northeast Jerusalem known as Isawiya. It is in the shadows of the French
Hill neighborhood, now heavily populated by Israeli settlers, and in the
shadows of Mt. Scopus/Hebrew University. Before 1967, Isawiya included
more than 12,000 dunams (aprox. 3000 acres) of land. Since the Israeli
occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem, their land has been
expropriated, for Israelis only, by about 95%. Now only 666 dunams, or
142 acres, are left, and only two-thirds of this is zoned for building.
This has been part of Israeli settlement of East Jerusalem, known as
"the ring around Jerusalem." Because of strict zoning regulations by
the Israeli authorities, many Palestinians, unable to get building
permits, have built anyway, and their homes have been slated for
demolition. Acquisition of occupied land is a direct violation of the
4th Geneva Convention.
We traveled through the Palestinian refugee camp of Shuffat, just East of
Jerusalem, to the home of Salim Shawamieh, whose home has been destroyed
and rebuilt four times!
As Mr. Shawamieh, himself, explained to our group, "Imagine sitting
there, having a meal with your family. All of a sudden, you are
surrounded by troops, and tear gas is thrown into your home, forcing you
to evacuate. This is "ethnic cleansing", "a quiet transfer",
making our lives horrible."
Rabbi Ascherman believes he is working for a better Israel. He is part
of the Israeli and Palestinian "coalition of hope", planning for a
better future. "But I have had my share of death threats," he says.
Palestine-Israel Journal
WaPSR delegation next visits the offices of Palestine-Israel Journal in
East Jerusalem. We meet with the Israeli co-editor, Hillel Schenker,
also a founder of "Peace Now"�, back in the 1980's.
Palestine-Israel Journal was founded during the early Oslo accords in
1993.
Its co-editor is Ziad Abu Ziad, a Palestinian who lives in a town called
Nasarriyeh in the West Bank. It used to be only a short 10 minute drive
away from their main office in East Jerusalem, but now Nasarriyeh is
behind The Wall and the Checkpoints, so now it takes more than 45
minutes, if you are lucky. Mr. Abu Ziad holds a West Bank identity card,
which means he can no longer come to Jerusalem, unless the Israeli
authorities grant him specific permission to visit, which almost never
happens. So unfortunately, Mr. Abu Ziad cannot be with us today.
Palestine-Israel journal is published quarterly in English. It is 128
pages, half of which is devoted to a central theme. Thanks to e-mail,
cellular phones, and virtual cyber-meetings, the two editors can carry
on, even when they are unable to meet. Such is life building bridges in
spite of the "Jerusalem Syndrome"�, where 3 faiths are concentrated
and locked in a cycle of intimidation and violence.
This is unfortunate according to Mr. Schenker, who believes that the
Israelis and Palestinians were only 2 weeks away from a final agreement
in January, 2001 at the end of the Clinton and Barak administrations.
Then Bush and Ariel Sharon came to power, and warm relations of the two
sides deteriorated significantly.
Now according to Schenker, most Israelis in Tel Aviv cope by blocking out
the reality on the other side. Meanwhile, the economy has plummeted on
both sides. The Israeli economy continues to be propped up by American
aid, while the Palestinian economy has fallen apart. Mr. Schenker still
believes the ultimate solution will be based on the pre-1967 borders,
perhaps with a few land swaps where the Palestinian state is given
comparable lands in Israel in exchange for a few of the larger settlement
blocks that Israel has built in the West Bank.
Machsun Watch
Next, we board our bus and go to a park in West Jerusalem, where we meet
two Israeli women who are part of an organization of 500 Israeli women,
known as Machsun (checkpoint) Watch. Its members have been at 46
checkpoints over 3000 times, in efforts to curtail acts of abuse by the
Israeli military on the Palestinian population. Machsun Watch's
premise is that "If you are being observed, you will behave better."
According to these women, "the Army listens to us."� Machsun Watch
had been able to reduce the number of out-and-out human rights abuses at
the checkpoints; however this has produced ambivalence with regard to
their purpose.
"We don't want to improve the occupation; we want to put an end to
the occupation."� Machsun published pictures and reports in Israel
about a Palestinian man at a checkpoint being forced at gunpoint to play
his violin. "Play something sad." The soldier said. This story had
a great impact on the conscience of many Israelis, even though no-one
died in this incident. But it brought back memories of the Nazis in
occupied Poland during WW II, who forced Jewish violinists to do the same
thing before killing them.
We are taken to Abu Dis, a once upscale Palestinian suburb of East
Jerusalem, where the wall is now separating Palestinian residents from
their jobs, their schools and their health facilities. We watch as
people climb up and squeeze through a gap in the wall where they are met
on the Jerusalem side by Israeli Police, who are accompanied by an attack
dog, and a Palestinian Collaborator/Informant who gets special privileges
for pointing out who, among the Palestinians passing by, should be
singled out for interrogation and/or detention. This wall is completely
destroying the economic viability of Abu Dis.
Next, we travel to the southeast border of municipal Jerusalem to the
Palestinian village of Al Walaja. This village is now in a precarious
situation, due to its strategic position. It interrupts the territorial
continuity between West Jerusalem, and the Gush Etzion block of
settlements, constructed since 1967 in the Southern part of East
Jerusalem, which was conquered in the 6 day war.
In Al Walaja, the land has been designated as in the municipality of
Jerusalem, but the villagers carry Palestinian ID passports, and are
considered residents of the Palestinian territories.
"An absurd situation is thus created. The land is in the jurisdiction
of Jerusalem/Israel, but the villagers . . . are considered as from the
Palestinian territories. As such, they are banned from entering Israel.
Simply by living in their own homes, they are in breach of the law, and
face penalties and expulsion."
Recently, the Israeli authorities have destroyed over 20 buildings and
issued demolition orders for about 30 more, due to lack of building
permits, which of course, are not issued to Palestinians.
Additionally, Al Walaja residents are subjected to incessant harassments
due to the unfortunate location of where they live. These harassments
include night arrests (since they are forbidden to live in their own
homes, which are situated in an area of Jerusalem), imposing extortionate
fines for unlicensed building, demolition orders, blocking of roads,
vehicle confiscations, threats and intimidation. All of this is designed
to impoverish the inhabitants of Al Walaja, and induce them to abandon
there homes and give up their land.
Next, Our dinner with Mordechai Vanunu.
