I am not stating the death of this blog but I am taking a step back from it. I think I was a dash overzealous to think I would continue to publish stories from my time in the West Bank that concluded over a month ago while there are such serious events unfolding in the Gaza Strip. Go read about the people who are living there and writing about it!
I have some longer opinion/literary journalistic pieces I am beating away at that will be posted here and my Flickr page will continually have some new photos of the West Bank going up there – so pop in there or subscribe to my RSS.
Stay tuned – but only in a passive way
Thanks for reading up to this point
Over and out
I used to want to work for the United Nations and if pushed to it I would still have to say that I do believe in what the organisation tries to do – despite all its faults. But I just don’t think me sitting in that UN decaled car driving around Jerusalem or the West Bank is something I want to do anymore. I won’t get into the details of the why…or maybe I will, but I think their presence in WB is somewhat useless. The organisation has such high ideals but little muscle to make any of them a reality. When a country such as Sudan commits certain atrocities they have sanctions slapped down on them, at the least. Now, this wasn’t an easy task to do, granted, but Israel has been committing low-level abuses for decades and not a hint of sanctions.
During Ramadan in this year, I was present at the Gilo terminal in Bethlehem and both UNWRA and UNOCHA were there. But what surprised me was that these people stood on the Bethlehem side and stood…and stood. Perhaps there was a moment when they could help explain the rules to some of the people who were turned away from the checkpoint but could they assist in the matter – no. I was chatting to one of the UNWRA women there and she consistently complained that the people did not appreciate her being there. The Palestinian people have watched the wall been built and completed and watched the UN at the same time document it without making a change. I don’t blame them for having a complaint or two. This is all the more frightening when none of the non-local UN staff there had even seen the inside of the terminal and were unsure of how it worked.
UNOCHA is more of an enigma. Why is a humanitarian coordination office here in WB, one of the biggest deployments in the world, when this is not a humanitarian crisis? A humanitarian dignity crisis to be sure, but not an emergency crisis like say, Haiti. Why all the millions pumped into this observation? I am not the only one asking this question.
And furthermore, their staff are not allowed to be in WB after dark, nor are they allowed to be in certain parts of East Jerusalem after 23:00, for reasons of security. It is hardly imaginable that abuses of human rights are going to occur within suitable hours for the UN to be able to witness and document. I realize that these concerns are really for insurance purposes. But are you here to see or are you not?
If your role here is to merely document – make that clear. Do not make out like you are here to make things better and make the Israeli government do things differently. It is clear you have no such power.
Ah, this post could get out of hand. I will stop there. I don’t want to try and get into a analysis of the effectiveness of the UN in Israel. What I do find interesting however is that there are members of the Knesset and firm Israel supporters who moan about the effectiveness of the UN in Israel. Does that make sense to anyone? Of course the sense of that comments depends on which party of the Knesset you are a member of, but non-Knesset, pro-Israel supporters – what exactly do you want the UN to do? Punish you? Stop the workers getting upset at the terminals? Bizarre.
To cut this short, I lost a lot of respect for the UN during my time in the West Bank. I didn’t loose respect for international law but I do have my concerns for whether it matters if it can’t be enforced. Perhaps the UN works like this in all areas of the world in which it is needed. Only further explorations will tell that one.
They say the town of Sderot is ravaged by rockets from the Gaza strip. We went there the same day the flimsy truce with Hamas was broken on 5 November. Presumably it was Hamas militants responding to an Israeli airstrike in Gaza the evening before. Rockets did fall that morning but most of them to the north, closer to Ashqelon. The alert was on cautious in Sderot and as we arrived at the media centre we were briefed on what to do in the event that the town sirens sounded. The whole town is fitted out with an elaborate and effective alarm system and bomb shelters in the event of rockets being fired. The sirens allow 15 seconds to get to safety.
The Sderot media centre tells us that some 7000 rockets have exploded in Sderot to this date, 10,000 in total. That’s a lot of rockets. Twelve people have died so far. You wouldn’t know it by looking around the town. Even today on an alert day people still go about their business. But if you look a little closer there are indeed rocket-created potholes in the pavement and cement. What look like splattered bullet holes and other structural damage from bits of shrapnel litter the walls of the surrounding buildings. One man showed us the inside of his home and the holes in his ceiling from flying shrapnel from a Qassam rocket that landed outside his apartment block. Most of the homes that have been hit are repaired quickly by the municipality, or some level of compensation is given and the structure destroyed although this is rarely necessary.
I can imagine the stress of living with this everyday. Residents speak of symptoms similar to post-traumatic stress in their children. The adults are constantly concerned about the ‘what-if’ factor. And the town is certainly not a bustling economic centre so I do wonder why people stay here. But ask anyone who is able to leave, why they stay in the face of attack and they talk of home, purpose and principle.
Contrary to popular belief, Hamas are not the only armed group within Gaza who swear on the destruction of Israel. In fact, there are six and any peace process or cease-fire needs to include these other groups. It is no good to have Hamas sign a cease-fire when others can send there own rockets – Hamas of course, needs to have more control in their territory. And what is even more interesting is that the rockets that do leave Gaza are all group-identifiable based on their wing design. All six groups: Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Popular Resistance Committees, Fatah-Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Popular Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine have their own wing design and rocket names. All are traceable to a particular ideology you might say.
We drive out of Sderot and stand on a hill overlooking the Gaza Strip, the Mediterranean glistening on the other side, some 15 kilometres away from us. But in between us and her waters is a world of hurt. So many people, some one and half million caught in a fight most of them have no interest in. You blame the Palestinians for firing rockets, and you blame the Israelis for their policy of collective punishment that allows such a barricade of Gaza Strip. Each side is right and each wrong. People are people and the conflict is bad for everyone. A human story is a human story; the only requirement is that you are human. Residents of the Gaza Strip are as innocent of victims as those of Sderot.
Some special finger painting outside Aida refugee camp in Bethlehem. I am not sure why it is there or what is being said, but it fits the area and the mood of this little town.
Ok, I have left the West Bank as of two days ago, but I have such a backlog of stories and pics that I need to go through so for the sake of completion I will continue adding them to the blog. Perhaps that is a little weird but however….
A video edited by a colleague of mine, Niina Karling, following the Ramadan Fridays during September 2008 at the Gilo checkpoint at Bethlehem. Perhaps have a look at some of the related videos that pop on YouTube to learn a little more.
The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions estimates that some 19,000 Palestinian homes have been demolished in the Occupied Territories since 1967,based on information gleaned from the Israeli Ministry of Interior, the Jerusalem Municipality, the Civil Administration, OCHA and other UN sources, Palestinian human rights groups, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and other sources.
Interesting read. And considering that I was witness to a house demolition in the Arab neighbourhood of Silwan, near the old city of Jerusalem on Wednesday, these kind of documents bring home the unjust policies of the Israeli government. It is hard to get your head around it sometimes.
I have heard twice now, that’s from two reliable sources, that the Israeli government keeps on ice the bodies of Palestinian prisoners who die while incarcerated until their sentence is finished. Basically that means that the families of those prisoners cannot see the body or receive the body for proper burial until the sentence is completed. This could mean years.
Let me reserve for a moment my own thoughts on how unbelievable and absurd that policy would be and just for a moment, believe that it is true. Could it be that Israel holds the Palestinian people in such contempt that they will spite them, even beyond the grave? I think not. Is this spite spread so thick that they would actually implement an extremely costly policy just for the sake of screwing with people? Again, I think not.
I have not met someone that has a direct story of such an incident and I have no way of determining the truthfulness of such a policy from the Israeli authorities, so, I can only conclude from my common sense that this is not true. And, if such an incident has happened, it just cannot be an official policy.
As wacky as this Israel/Palestine situation is, that just gets a little wacky for me. If anyone has any information about such a policy – let me know! I will simply be flabbergasted if this is the case…
We here in Palestine are always very welcoming of the new additions to the community. We are particularly appreciative of those who take such an interest in keeping the town safe; take the law into their own hands, stand up to their fears and say NO to crime. They bring armoured personnel carriers and mount machine guns on the balcony of their home, ready to spring into action at the first hint of trouble. So let’s shout a big, hearty welcome, to our new neighbours!
FACTS:
Husan village, west of Bethlehem
3 storey home close to Road 60, just off the main road of Husan
Accusations of stone throwing at cars by settlers of Betar Illit who use the road
IDF responds to accusations
2 personnel carriers, 1 jeep
Some 20 soldiers
02:00 on Saturday morning
Family of the home gets evacuated
An Israeli flag in a Palestinian village
It gets nasty
The international support is called in
We arrive
It stays nasty
The family has an army in their home which they are traumatised by
The soldiers harass the community from their new base
And the story continues…
We didn’t hear about it until days after the event. The Israeli army pulled up to the house one night in jeeps, hummers and a tank not far from the Church of Nativity, evacuated everyone from the building and let out a barrage of bullets and grenades and bombs, completely destroying the inside of the structure. It still stands but living there would be impossible.
The reason? They thought there was a wanted man, a member of Hamas, hiding in the house. He wasn’t there, there was no one in the house, they waited for hours for him to come out, it wasn’t even his house, but they destroyed it anyway. Neighbours reported hearing the vehicles and then explosions rocked the ground. The family that lived in the house now stay with relatives. They can’t return to their home, they can hardly start again.
We visited the site yesterday. Holes gaped in the ceiling, the kitchen was completely destroyed and shrapnel holes littered the walls. Rubber and foam left over from the furniture was splattered all around and glass cracked under your shoes. Shards of metal around the rooms had to be carefully navigated and the doors lay in splinters. Outside, the perimeter walls were fallen and the big pine tree was tattered but still standing.
Whatever the reason for the demolition, whether justified or not, it is clear that the Israeli army considers resistance to be futile. Dissent intolerable. Out of the front entrance lay a child play home on a glass littered carpet, still standing and seemingly undamaged. Resistance will continue.
Check out this article written by Rabbi Brian Walt in the Mail & Guardian entitled: Hard Truths.
Read it. Leave a comment. Support this kind of rational and level thinking. The occupation sucks and is not doing anybody good. The more people of position there are out there like this, the better.
Check out the following report that a colleague, Niina Karling and myself bashed together. It is on a West Bank village, An Nu’man, south of Jerusalem that has some particular legal and social problems. It was written as part of the requirements to the program we are working with here, in Palestine. There are accompanying photographs but they will not be available in this version.
Making the checkpoints and terminals difficult doesn’t make any sense. Clearly there is an idea of punishment and simple harassment behind them, not security. Since most of the checkpoints and terminals are illegal under a number of international laws, the international community is watching (they are not doing much about it, but they are watching). The Israelis want the checkpoints and terminals there and there are arguments for their existence but they also don’t want the international community to be involved. The smartest thing the Israelis could do is make it as easy as possible for Palestinians to pass. This way, the Israelis still get their security, they can still tell the Israeli people they are doing all they can to protect them, while at the same time the international community can come and look at the terminals, see them working so well, and see how the people who have permits pass so easily.
“Hey, this occupation isn’t working so badly”, they would say. “Look, the people are coming and going with no hassles. Israel really is the nicest army, the most humane army in the world. What does it matter if they break a few Geneva conventions? They aren’t really doing anything wrong”….and so on.
That’s just the way it works. If people can’t see it, they don’t think about it, there is nothing to write about and no photographs to take. Subliminal subjugation, I would call it. Israel hasn’t chosen the route of subliminal subjugation. They have chosen blatant oppression. So well done Israel on making it so easy to see the mess you have made of international law and human rights. The world is recording everything and when the time comes for this unsustainable social abomination to fall, and history tells us that it will fall, all the political lobbying you can muster won’t save you from this tower of paper.
See my growing collection of checkpoint pictures here
Check out this engaging analysis by Walter Russell Mead in Foreign Affairs as he takes a look at American support for the Jewish State. Not just Israel as such, but the Jewish state, citing biblical examples and why it isn’t just the Israeli lobby groups that shape American foreign policy. A good read.
Takes a dash of time and thought is required…sorry.
“The road map to peace is missing four words…essential words…human rights and international law”
Mazin Qumsiyeh, Palestinian intellectual, academic and professor in reference to the American-led Roadmap to Peace plan for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
