May God Make Great Your Reward

by Katharine Maycock

from: Bullet Points (used w/permission)

This week I learnt to say ' allah 'atham ajrakum' - 'may God make great your reward'. This is what you say to the mourning relatives of any Palestinian who was killed by the Israeli army. This week in Bethlehem, Tariq a 17 year old refugee, died in Aida camp, not far from where I live. He was apparently throwing stones at the IDF, and was certainly not armed. His Mother looked pale, sitting in the corner of the front room of her house, as people poured in to offer their condolences.

Tariq is considered a martyr. He died for a national cause. His funeral - last Saturday - therefore was a national event and was screened on Palestinian TV channels. Anyone from the camp or area can come and pay respects to his family. His mother will sit for 3 days receiving visitors - many of whom she has never met and will probably never meet again. The Arab Education Institute, with other local Bethlehem peace groups - made a solidarity visit. Women gathered in Tariq's house, and the men went to another location. We sat in silence. We were offered small cups of bitter Arabic coffee, and a small sweet. The narrow house is perched on a concrete plinth on the corner of an alleyway. Aida camp - like most camps, is a series of concrete garbage-strewn alleyways too narrow for cars, cut off from access to the main road by barbed wire, with IDF posts stationed at its entrances. The refugee camps in Bethlehem (Aida, Deheishe and Azza) are isolated within the town. They have frequently experienced more of the heavy-handed behaviour of the Israeli army, including sound bombs, tear gas, house searches in the middle of the night, and ugly language being broadcast at night from Israeli jeeps. This is the context in which Tariq, one of the 'children of the stones' lived.

Tariq, like 60,000 other residents, could not leave Bethlehem because...

1. He could not obtain a permit.

2. Even if he had a permit allowing him to go somewhere, a new law was introduced by Israel this week, prohibiting any Palestinian under the age of 35 from from moving between towns and villages in the West Bank and from leaving the Territories to get into Israel even if they have the right permit, and a foreign passport. (The only exception are Palestinians under 4 months old!). The Allenby Bridge into Jordan is also closed to Palestinians so they are stuck.

3. Bethlehem closed again today. For the last week the rumour had been spreading amongst locals and taxi drivers that on the 15th January, all West Bank towns would be closed for a long time. It seems the rumour is correct. At 5am this morning, curfew was announced. Whether in response to the Tel Aviv suicide bombing, the Israeli election period culminating on 28th January, or the war in Iraq...noone quite knows. Many universities have been closed this week across the West Bank. So the closures are tightening here and no one can move.

An Israeli viewpoint

A standard response from the Israelis I have met, as to why Palestinians have to live in this way, goes something like this. This particular conversation was with a volunteer Israeli reservist, age 54, with whom I got talking at the Bethlehem checkpoint a few weeks ago.

It started when I saw a soldier, one of his colleagues, shouting aggressively to a Palestinian man who had showed him his identity and gone through the checkpoint. The man was told to wait. I walked through after having my passport looked at by the same soldier. I hesitated, turned back and asked the soldiers if they could explain to me what was happening with this man. It was exactly the time of Iftar - breaking the Ramadan fast at sunset - and there were not many people about. The reservist said they had their reasons to be suspicious about him. He started off at quite a loud pitch (with my response in brackets).

- we (Israelis) are getting attacked on all sides and we have a right to defend ourselves. I have 3 kids and our people are being blown up on buses. They kill women and children in their beds (reference to a Palestinian attack on a settlement) (yes, and the Israeli army kill innocent women and children every day in the Territories)

- That is why I offer to come here to help at the checkpoint. My colleague was not being violent. Did you see any violence? (yes, verbal violence..and aggressive behaviour)

- Look,2 years ago our prime minister Ehud Barak offered the Palestinians a state (at Camp David) and they rejected it. (Yes, it may have seemed generous but this was because all the real control remained in Israeli hands - borders, water, airspace, and the land was fragmented in pieces. It would have been impossible to build a sovereign state which could have worked economically and socially..)

- Arafat deliberately intended the violence of the Intifada. (the Palestinians had waited through seven years of negotiations to see their lives improve. But Israel went on building settlements on their land, making their lives more difficult, and denying them many basic human rights. The Intifada uprising was provoked by the visit of Ariel Sharon to the most sacred Holy Muslim sites..Palestinians protested, Israel shot many dead.)

- in 1967 the Palestinians wanted to push us into the land. We have to defend ourselves (yes, but the Palestinians I talk to accept Israel's right to exist. The Oslo negotiations were based an affirmation of Israel's right to exist. It was the Palestinians who made the biggest concession at the start of the Oslo negotiations - to build their state on just 22% of Mandate Palestine. Israel is one of the most powerful nuclear countries in the world, and is backed by the worlds super power. Where's the equivalence?)

Then he said, in a quieter tone

- look, I would shake my hands with them. They can live in their own state along side us