|
|
|
|
P.M. Excerpts from The Other Israel
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
by Polly Mann, W A M M
|
One of several publications which keeps me informed on conditions in Israel/Palestine is The Other Israel (TOI) which arrives from Jerusalem every other month, usually from 28 to 32 pages long, of fairly small print. I know I’ll read every single word, yet it often sits several days on the coffee table before me, challenging my time. This “newsletter of the struggle for Israeli-Palestinian peace” was founded in 1983 by the veteran Israeli peace activist Uri Avneri and several other Israelis. Following is an abridgement from the current issue.
While there has been an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, the reader is shown “Cracks in the Ice” which include 1) the nightly raids and detention of Palestinians by Israeli forces in the heart of West Bank cities, 2) the ongoing construction of the Separation Barrier, and 3) the continuing harassment of Gazans by fighter planes and helicopters.
The existence of poverty in Israel is acknowledged in TOI, but rarely from other sources. Citing the finance minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, TOI says, “Charity associations reported the ever increasing demand for their services, and crowded soup kitchens sprang up all over the country. And statistics compiled by reputable institutions – not only oppositional NGO’s but even some government agencies – clearly indicated the continued enriching of the rich, impoverishment of the poor, and erosion of the middle class.”
This issue of TOI introduces me to Amir Peretz, a Moroccan Jew, of the Labour party. In his acceptance speech of the leadership after having defeated Shimon Peres, Peretz said: “Ongoing rule in the Territories is a recipe for sinking into a morass, a loss of values and morality. We need a Moral Roadmap whose guiding star is respect for human dignity. A Moral Roadmap means ending the occupation and signing a permanent agreement. A Moral Roadmap means defending the value of each and every person in Israel—their dignity, their families, their livelihood.” Shortly thereafter Peres up and left the Labour Party and joined Ariel Sharon’s new party, Kadima.
Military resister Uri Nathan tells of the formation of his convictions about killing. In high school he decided to refuse conscription. He, along with several Israelis, people from the International Solidarity Movement and a single Palestinian in an arrest following a demonstration against the construction of the separation wall, witnessed the violence of the border guards. “We declared solidarity; nobody goes away until everybody is released. The officer argued with us for several hours and in the evening he did let all of us go. This gave me an appreciation for the power of nonviolence—not so much the demo itself as this confrontation inside the police station.” In his last year in high school his convictions deepened. “Our principal decided to invite an air force brigadier, who was a graduate of the school, to give a lecture. On the day he arrived, I and two others chained ourselves to the school gate with a sign ‘No Entrance to the Army.’ Our friends stood around us and gave out leaflets, while hostiles were cursing us and some threw stones.” Nathan was not granted conscientious objector status and went to prison. (Uri Nathan can be contacted at: efran@012.net.il.)
TOI readers learn of “New Profile,” a feminist antimilitarist movement of women and men through a story about Idan Halili, sentenced to the “Military Women’s Prison” for refusing to join the army. Several months previously Halili had written the military: “Instead of military service I choose to volunteer for work benefiting those whom our society tends to neglect and humiliate. I look for a way of contributing to society without being forced either to oppress or be oppressed. Refusal is a choice that allows you to express yourself, to promote equality with those around you instead of hierarchy, and to finally allow some space for human dignity.” The military authorities, however, refused to let her appear before the Conscience Committee.
New Profile then decided to back her in a media campaign with radio news items, newspaper articles, internet news websites, leaflets, and an ad in Haaretz. There were support meetings at the Tel Aviv University and other places. Various organizations joined in the struggle for Halili to be allowed to speak to the Conscience Committee. Two Knesset members sent protest letters to the minister of defense. U.S. Prof. Cynthia Enloe, English Prof. Cynthia Coburn, and American playwright Eve Ensler joined the campaign. Permission for the meeting was granted. After an appearance before the Conscience Committee, Halili was informed by them that while the committee members “were not convinced that she is a pacifist,” they nevertheless concluded that “she is unfit to serve in the military.”
One of several articles about olive trees begins with a report of a mission of Rabbis for Human Rights to aid Palestinian farmers cultivating their fields in preparation for the planting of olive trees in the south Hebron hills. This past fall dozens of Israelis (members of the Olive Harvest Coalition), leaving their regular employment, arose early to travel to threatened West Bank villages to work as unskilled day laborers/human shields. They were able to prevent settlers from interfering with the farm work, but in the night, after the coalition members had gone home, the settlers returned to destroy the olive trees. In response the Olive Coalition intends to organize a large-scale tree planting. The Palestinian Popular Committees, who share in the same initiative, have already ordered 40,000 saplings.
A small article spotlighted Tali Fahima, an Israeli peace activist who was tried for passing information to the enemy and violating a ban on Israelis entering the Palestinian-controlled areas, found guilty and sentenced to a three-year term in prison. The trial served, says TOI, “to deepen doubts and divisions in the Israeli public as to both Israel’s relations with the Palestinians and the role of the security services and judicial system.”
The latest news on the separation wall tells of the struggle of Bil’in villagers against it. For several months the villagers protested on Fridays. After several months of frustrated attempts to halt the protests, the Israeli army made massive surprise late night raids, often snatching village youths from their beds, to spend months at the Ofer prison camp. This, however, did not stop the villagers. Instead their steadfastness encouraged the people of neighboring Aboud to follow their example.
A writer from Gush Shalom (www.gush-sahalom.org) describes the 2006 celebration of Hanukka at a Palestinian outpost: “Soldiers and settlers who looked on from a distance did not believe their eyes, some 70 Israelis and Palestinians, among them a lot of children, and among them the eight holding candles (or rather torches), one by one placing them in the huge hanukkia while making each their own statement: I came here to light a candle against the settlers who by force take possession of land that belongs to others, contrary to the Jewish values they profess to honor / because of all the trees being uprooted / all the houses being demolished.”
These moving accounts from this insightful journal remind us that in the midst of conflict and war there can be, and most often are, people working for peaceful resolution, people who do not constitute the majority yet are effective, people who do not characterize the “other” as the enemy but who recognize instead the oneness of all humanity.
TOI: otheris@actcom.co.il
A subscription costs $30 a year. |
|
|
|
© 2006 Women Against Military Madness. All rights reserved.
|
 |
|
Complete April 2006 Index - click here
|
|
 |
|
|
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
|
|
|
|
|
|
