Bearing Witness: A Fact-finding Mission to Israel/Palestine

Abigail A. Ferguson

 What the Occupation Means for Palestinians

 My delegations' focus and emphasis was based on equality, or in other words, allowing both parties ample time to voice their particular thoughts, feelings, and concerns and elaborate on the work they do. To this end, we met with a wide range of Israeli and Palestinian organizations working on different aspects of bringing about a peaceful solution through non-violent means (e.g., education, direct action, women’s empowerment, community involvement, civil disobedience actions, reporting on human rights abuses and on the effects of occupation, etc.).

That being said, there is nothing equal about this situation. The facts that Israel continues to establish on the ground violate International and Humanitarian Law as well as Security Council Resolutions 242 and 446, to name but a few. The fact remains that there is an Occupying Power and an Occupied Population. No one can argue with this reality and only a warmonger would argue that this oppression should continue and that the current status quo should be upheld.

Since 1967, Palestinians have been living under total military occupation which means they lack sovereignty and autonomy over their lives and their basic needs. The occupation takes on many different forms and ultimately affects just about every aspect of a Palestinian’s life on any given day.

Checkpoints

According to a recent report by the Palestine Monitor, there are currently 482 checkpoints located throughout the West Bank and Gaza. The checkpoints are a major, everyday obstacle to peace and often determine whether or not a Palestinian will be able to go to work, school, and/or visit their relatives. Israeli soldiers stationed at the checkpoints often determine whether or not Palestinians can obtain access to medical care; those with life-threatening injuries or illnesses have been made to wait for hours until they are “cleared” by a soldier. The Palestine Monitor reports that at least 82 Palestinian civilians have been killed in checkpoint-related deaths. In addition, there are at least 52 reported cases of Palestinian women being forced to give birth at checkpoints, which has resulted in the deaths of 17 newborn babies. 

Roadblocks

Roadblocks are set up by Israeli soldiers and settlers in order to make it extremely difficult for Palestinians to reach a given destination, often resulting in total restriction of movement altogether. For example, alternate routes can take hours to traverse and often prevent many from getting to school or work on time or at all. On one occasion, our delegation was forced to drive an hour and a half out of our way to reach a neighboring town that under normal circumstances would have taken less than 10 minutes. This is the type of reality that many Palestinians face every day. 

Curfews

Whether Palestinians will be able to leave their homes to go to work, school, visit their families or run errands depends entirely on the orders of the Israeli military. For example, in the Palestinian city of Hebron, curfew often defines what life is like altogether. Our delegation witnessed this type of imposition firsthand as we were unable to reach the Old City or area H2, which at the time, had been sealed off by the Israeli military. Since October 2000, H2 has been under curfew for a total number of days equivalent to two years.

Home Demolitions

Since 1967, Israel has demolished more than 10,000 Palestinian homes throughout the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem, resulting in hundreds of thousands of people becoming displaced. Many Palestinian homes are “in the way of” the path of The Wall that is currently being built or are simply located too close to Jewish-only by-pass roads and/or settlements and are therefore promptly demolished. Salim Shawamreh’s home has been destroyed four times by the Israeli military despite the fact that he has attempted on numerous occasions to obtain a legal permit to build. Israeli, Palestinian, and international volunteers recently finished building Salim’s fifth home, which he dedicated to Rachel Corrie, the American peace activist who was run over and killed by an Israeli bulldozer while trying to prevent a home from being demolished this past March. The Shawamreh’s brand-new home has already received demolition orders by the Israeli military and will likely be destroyed in the near future, despite the current international uproar.

Institutionalized Discrimination

Israel retains over 20 laws that discriminate against the Palestinian minority in basic aspects of civic life. Palestinian citizens living inside Israel do not enjoy equal rights to the same degree or extent as Israel's Jewish population. Rather, they are treated as second-class citizens and are thereby prevented from reaching a socio-economic status and standing equal to that of an Israeli Jew. According to Phyllis Bennis’ Primer (Understanding the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: A Primer) “some rights and obligations, sometimes known as “Nationality Rights,” favor Jews over non-Jews (who are overwhelmingly Palestinian) in social services, the right to own land, access to bank loans and education, military service and more.”

Settlements

Since the beginning of the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories in 1967, consecutive Israeli governments have established illegal settlements, or Jewish-only housing units in violation of international law. These settlements are joined to each other and to Israel through “by-pass” roads, which are for the sole use of Israelis and are built on privately owned Palestinian land confiscated by the Israeli government. The settlements ensure that Palestinians live in a perpetual state of instability. According to The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, or ICAHD, “since 1967, Israel has established at least 214 settlements in the West Bank, and another 18 in the Gaza Strip. As of May 2002, over 400,000 Israelis live beyond the Green Line: 200,000 in the West Bank and another 200,000 in East Jerusalem. In Gaza, where only 6500 settlers live among more than a million Palestinians, 40% of Gaza is controlled by Israel.” Article 49, paragraph six of the Fourth Geneva Convention states that “the Occupying Power shall not transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.” Clearly, Israel’s continued policy of settlement creation and expansion is illegal and violates Security Council resolutions 446, 452, and 462, which call for an end to settlement activities in the Occupied Territories, an end to settlement activities in Jerusalem, and a dismantling of existing settlements, respectively. Further SC resolutions such as 271, 471, 476, 592, 726, and 1322 call on Israel to comply with the initial Fourth Geneva Convention that was issued on August 12, 1949.

The Wall

Since June 2002, Israel has been building a “Security Wall” throughout the West Bank. However, the Wall is establishing facts on the ground and is explicitly illegal as it is not being built on or in some cases even near the 1967 Green Line and is expropriating acres and acres of Palestinian-owned land. The Wall, in concrete form, measures 25 feet high, which is twice as high as the Berlin Wall. With expansions, the Wall could reach as long as 435 miles (about 700 kms). Each kilometer is costing an estimated $2 million dollars. The completion of the Wall will mean that hundreds of thousands of Palestinians will be isolated from the rest of the West Bank. As well, thousands of villagers will be trapped between the 1967 Armistice Line and the Wall and/or lose access to their lands and their livelihoods. Visiting and experiencing the Wall in its many forms (e.g., 25 foot high concrete barrier complete with watchtowers, razor sharp barbed wire, security cameras, motion detectors, deep trenches, security vehicles and personnel, etc.) is nothing less than shocking and revolting. The creation of this Wall will serve only as a barrier to peace and will do nothing to bring about security for Israel. Rather, it will increase the already volatile situation on the ground and will prevent the establishment of a viable and contiguous Palestinian state.

The Israeli Peace Movement

Much of Israeli society is or appears to be extremely misinformed. The people appear to be complacent, unaware, and in general quite ignorant of what is taking place in the Occupied Territories. This is happening for many reasons: an acquiescent (yet overly sensitized) media, a lack of accurate, substantive coverage, and government propaganda. Mix in with these elements the sentiment that nothing will ever change, that the Palestinian people don’t want peace (untrue), and factor in that a large portion of Israeli society engages in regular escapism and you find that under 2.5% of Israelis are actively involved in the peace movement (a movement that is very much ignored and cast aside by Israeli media, much like in this country).

B’Tselem, an Israeli Human Rights Information Center, as well as some members of the Women Coalition for Peace (a network of Israeli peace and human rights activists) declared that the Israeli public just simply does not want to know about what takes place in the Occupied Territories—period. According to some of the Israeli peace groups that we met with, Israelis cannot understand nor link the fact that if the occupation ended (and the Palestinian people were liberated and given a viable, sovereign state of their own) Israel could finally drop its extremely costly and ultimately ineffective security mechanisms and allow everyone to start moving on with their lives—in peace. 

This sentiment does appear to be changing rapidly, however, as in recent weeks many prominent Israelis – civilian and military alike – have spoken out against the Sharon Administration’s failed policies that have resulted in more and more bloodshed. It appears that many Israelis are finally beginning to see that until the occupation comes to a screeching halt, they will continue to live in a constant state of uncertainty and fear.

What Role Do Americans Play?

As Americans, we need to be properly educated and informed on some of the unjust policies that are meted out in our name and that in effect enable the oppression of the Palestinian people and help to maintain the fear and anguish that many Israelis experience.

Since 1949, the total amount of aid given to Israel is more than $134 billion. We must be cognizant of the fact that millions of our hard-earned tax dollars are being funneled into Israel every year. The majority of this financial aid goes into the pockets of the military infrastructure to help pay for Apache helicopter gunships, armored bulldozers, F-16 fighter jets, tanks, and so forth. These weapons of destruction and oppression only serve to exacerbate the already volatile situation in the Occupied Territories, kill and maim innocent civilians, demolish homes and destroy the livelihood of many Palestinians, and in general wreak havoc on a defenseless civilian population.

As Americans we need to begin to work to invariably bring about a peaceful end to the conflict not only because we have a moral responsibility to do so due to our government’s involvement in the region but simply because it is the right thing to do. If we do not assert pressure on our own government to stop sitting on its hands and to truly resolve this conflict (by resolving, I mean putting pressure on the Sharon Administration to end the occupation and dismantle all forms of oppression against the Palestinian people), a genuine and lasting peace will never come to the region. I think everyone would agree that it’s time for both Israelis and Palestinians to start picking up the pieces of their shattered lives and begin moving on from this dark chapter in their collective history. In addition, it’s time for the U.S. government to stop funding and in essence maintaining Israel’s illegal and brutal occupation of Palestine.

Palestinians and Israelis Deserve to Live in Peace

In the end, justice must be granted and this is at the heart of everything. It is one of the most crucial pieces in solving and ending this bitter conflict the right way. I am not an historian, but the basic facts speak for themselves: until the Israeli government takes (at least partial) responsibility for the method in which the state of Israel was founded in 1948 (i.e., Israeli armed militias invading Palestinian villages and towns, resulting in massacres and in hundreds of thousands of Palestinians evacuating their homes and fleeing for their lives) and grants restitution and justice to the Palestinian people, a lasting peace will never prevail.

References

i) Phyllis Bennis: Understanding the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict: A Primer; a TARI publication. Available online at www.endtheoccupation.org. Hard copies can be ordered on www.tari.org.

ii) B’Tselem: The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories (www.btselem.org).

iii) Christian Peacemakers Team (www.cpt.org).

iv) ei: Electronic Intifada (www.electronicintifada.net).

v) Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (www.icahd.org).

vi) Palestine Monitor (www.palestinemonitor.org).

vii) PENGON: The Palestinian Environmental NGOs Network (www.pengon.org).

viii) The U.S. Campaign to End the Occupation (www.endtheoccupation.org).