11-01-2010, 01:15 PM
ISRAEL PEACE ACTION #2
Hello everyone, the last two days have been a blast. I have spent them in the South Hebron Hills with the Israeli group Ta’ayush and with the Villages Group. The South Hebron Hills are in the southernmost part of the Occupied West Bank. It is very sparsely populated. We were told that the intention of the Government is to remove the Palestinian population to local towns like Yatta or Hebron and take over the land. Shades of similar efforts in Australia?
Ta’ayush are committed to co-operation between Palestinians and Israeli Jews. I went with them at 7am in the morning to a tiny ‘village’ Ber Al Idd - it is just a collection of tents. Since the early 90s, the people of Ber Al Idd have been fighting eviction from their land. Two months ago, they won a significant victory in court - they could return to their land. But… there is always a ‘but‘, they cannot erect anything on it, not even tents. Even the outhouse dunny is under a demolition order!
They are now fighting the demolition orders for their tents. (These are designed and manufactured by Palestinians, funded by OCHA (UN Organisation for Co-ordination of Humanitarian Aid. They are well engineered, cool and insulated under the hot winter sun.)
Sounds like an inverted demand by Portia of Shylock that he may have his pound of flesh but to be sure no blood is taken. The Palestinians may place themselves on their land but not support for their flesh and blood. The Palestinians must fight a continual legal war of attrition to maintain a grip on their land.
Ber AL Idd lies between two illegal (even by Israel standards) outposts. However, these supposedly illegal structures are supplied with electricity and water, whereas Ber El Idd must buy in water tankers. They have one solar panel with supplies enough energy for a cell phone, some light - and videos! ‘To them that hath shall be given, from them that have not, even the little they have shall be taken away…’
Our task with Ta’ayush was to rehabilitate a well that, through neglect during the enforced absence of the Palestinian owners, had got filled with all sorts of rubbish. One group was down a large cave digging the increasingly muddy soil, filling buckets and sending them to the surface where the other half of the team emptied the buckets on the stony land around. So I got my hands (and clothes) well covered with the soil of Palestine, the Holy Land, whatever, a toiler of the soil for a day. And my body knew it by the end of it.
Generally, I was told, the police or army try to stop the Ta’ayush minibus. We were told to fasten our seat belts to give them no pretext to block our progress. Often, too, settlers come down and harass the Palestinians on their land. Sometimes, the Palestinians take their sheep a little farther afield on lands occupied by settlers. Even 5 hours grazing is a struggle yet it can save the precious cash that would otherwise have to be paid for feed for the flocks over that time. An illustration of the fragility of the economy and their lives.
>From all of this, it is obvious that it is not just the fanatical settlers that are pushing the agenda of ongoing dispossession of the Palestinians. It is conscious government policy and has been so through successive Israel governments. The settlers are the shock troops on whom responsibility can be deflected.
Our Palestinian hosts plied us with glasses of sweet minted tea throughout the day. Their condition of life is incredibly basic and the economy very fragile. They farm goats and sheep for the milk largely and meat for food. This gives a very modest cash surplus. I saw women making butter in the traditional way. The cream was in large goat skin sacks which were suspended on a pipe. The women sat on the ground jiggling the full closed bags endlessly to churn the cream into butter. This would no doubt be sold at a local market.
The next day, yesterday, I met with Hamed a Palestinian who works for OCHA. But in his free time, he works with a number of dedicated Israelis calling themselves the Villages Group developing sustainable projects particularly with the people in the South Hebron Hills who are so poor and disadvantaged. The idea is to support the people to be technologically skilled and equipped, independent in a very grass roots consultative way. This enables them to retain a hold on their land and gives them confidence to do so. The solidarity breaks their isolation and empowers them.
I took the bus from the East Jerusalem Bus centre (the Palestinian buses). I needed to negotiate the Bethlehem checkpoint (no problems) and eventually found Hamed in his UN blue and white jeep. Thank God for mobile phones! I was not so lucky on my way back to Jerusalem, however, 50 minutes standing at the checkpoint, everyone was incredibly patient, even good humoured!
We visited the same ‘village’, Ber Al Idd. With us was a Palestinian lawyer funded by Rabbis for Human Rights. The task of the day was to discuss the issues of the case they were taking against the demolition orders on their few tents. I sat while the men of the hamula, (of course not the women), animatedly discussed the issues of the case. Hamed and the lawyer with the elders were identifying the tents and locating them precisely with a GPS gadget. It seemed clear to me that the lawyer needed to manage everyone’s expectations and provide a reality check. He said the case would be hard to win. When the power and the law defend the occupation, how else can it be?
Our hosts then fed us a magnificent lunch. Chunks of boiled sheep carcass were served on a large platter of rice. One sheep’s eye stared balefully at me. This was accompanied by a tasty stock, obviously the liquid in which the mutton had been boiled, with some yoghurt added to give it a tang. Several bowls of the stock were laid out with spoons and forks. I took a bowl and started eating the soup but that was a boo-boo! The way it was done, was that several people sat around one platter on the floor, took a spoonful of broth and put it on the rice on the platter near them, mixed it up with the rice and ate, accompanied with chunks of meat. This was definitely not the beaten tourist track!
After the legal work was completed, Hamed took me to another family, a Bedouin one, who lived within a couple of metres of a cyclone fence where a settlement had boldly encroached on their land. They had built the most modern of poultry houses. We could see the electricity lines going from the buildings of the settlement on the hill over the pitiful tent dwelling of the Bedouin to the poultry building. Piped water to the setlement was visible on the ground. Electricity and air-con for the chooks, none for the Palestinians…
It is said by some that there is no Israel peace movement, no Israeli Left, just dedicated individuals. But what I have seen belies this completely. The demonstrations against the Jewish takeover of Palestinian neighbourhoods like Sheikh Jarrah take place weekly and are growing. Ta’ayush have been coming weekly for years to Ber El Idd. There are numerous other weekly demonstrations, such as those at B‘lin against the depredations of The Wall, where Israelis alongside the Palestinians and internationals, battle the tear gas and general IDF brutality.
Indeed this movement is tiny and has little impact on the wider Israeli political scene (how much actual impact does the global justice movement have?) and the grim Israeli consensus of establishing an Iron Wall of force to subjugate the Palestinians. But, like the global social justice movement, the Israel Left is incredibly dedicated and is there. They keep the flame of human decency and justice alive in Israel under extremely difficult circumstances. I take my hat off to them.
Vivienne Porzsolt
10 January 2010
Hello everyone, the last two days have been a blast. I have spent them in the South Hebron Hills with the Israeli group Ta’ayush and with the Villages Group. The South Hebron Hills are in the southernmost part of the Occupied West Bank. It is very sparsely populated. We were told that the intention of the Government is to remove the Palestinian population to local towns like Yatta or Hebron and take over the land. Shades of similar efforts in Australia?
Ta’ayush are committed to co-operation between Palestinians and Israeli Jews. I went with them at 7am in the morning to a tiny ‘village’ Ber Al Idd - it is just a collection of tents. Since the early 90s, the people of Ber Al Idd have been fighting eviction from their land. Two months ago, they won a significant victory in court - they could return to their land. But… there is always a ‘but‘, they cannot erect anything on it, not even tents. Even the outhouse dunny is under a demolition order!
They are now fighting the demolition orders for their tents. (These are designed and manufactured by Palestinians, funded by OCHA (UN Organisation for Co-ordination of Humanitarian Aid. They are well engineered, cool and insulated under the hot winter sun.)
Sounds like an inverted demand by Portia of Shylock that he may have his pound of flesh but to be sure no blood is taken. The Palestinians may place themselves on their land but not support for their flesh and blood. The Palestinians must fight a continual legal war of attrition to maintain a grip on their land.
Ber AL Idd lies between two illegal (even by Israel standards) outposts. However, these supposedly illegal structures are supplied with electricity and water, whereas Ber El Idd must buy in water tankers. They have one solar panel with supplies enough energy for a cell phone, some light - and videos! ‘To them that hath shall be given, from them that have not, even the little they have shall be taken away…’
Our task with Ta’ayush was to rehabilitate a well that, through neglect during the enforced absence of the Palestinian owners, had got filled with all sorts of rubbish. One group was down a large cave digging the increasingly muddy soil, filling buckets and sending them to the surface where the other half of the team emptied the buckets on the stony land around. So I got my hands (and clothes) well covered with the soil of Palestine, the Holy Land, whatever, a toiler of the soil for a day. And my body knew it by the end of it.
Generally, I was told, the police or army try to stop the Ta’ayush minibus. We were told to fasten our seat belts to give them no pretext to block our progress. Often, too, settlers come down and harass the Palestinians on their land. Sometimes, the Palestinians take their sheep a little farther afield on lands occupied by settlers. Even 5 hours grazing is a struggle yet it can save the precious cash that would otherwise have to be paid for feed for the flocks over that time. An illustration of the fragility of the economy and their lives.
>From all of this, it is obvious that it is not just the fanatical settlers that are pushing the agenda of ongoing dispossession of the Palestinians. It is conscious government policy and has been so through successive Israel governments. The settlers are the shock troops on whom responsibility can be deflected.
Our Palestinian hosts plied us with glasses of sweet minted tea throughout the day. Their condition of life is incredibly basic and the economy very fragile. They farm goats and sheep for the milk largely and meat for food. This gives a very modest cash surplus. I saw women making butter in the traditional way. The cream was in large goat skin sacks which were suspended on a pipe. The women sat on the ground jiggling the full closed bags endlessly to churn the cream into butter. This would no doubt be sold at a local market.
The next day, yesterday, I met with Hamed a Palestinian who works for OCHA. But in his free time, he works with a number of dedicated Israelis calling themselves the Villages Group developing sustainable projects particularly with the people in the South Hebron Hills who are so poor and disadvantaged. The idea is to support the people to be technologically skilled and equipped, independent in a very grass roots consultative way. This enables them to retain a hold on their land and gives them confidence to do so. The solidarity breaks their isolation and empowers them.
I took the bus from the East Jerusalem Bus centre (the Palestinian buses). I needed to negotiate the Bethlehem checkpoint (no problems) and eventually found Hamed in his UN blue and white jeep. Thank God for mobile phones! I was not so lucky on my way back to Jerusalem, however, 50 minutes standing at the checkpoint, everyone was incredibly patient, even good humoured!
We visited the same ‘village’, Ber Al Idd. With us was a Palestinian lawyer funded by Rabbis for Human Rights. The task of the day was to discuss the issues of the case they were taking against the demolition orders on their few tents. I sat while the men of the hamula, (of course not the women), animatedly discussed the issues of the case. Hamed and the lawyer with the elders were identifying the tents and locating them precisely with a GPS gadget. It seemed clear to me that the lawyer needed to manage everyone’s expectations and provide a reality check. He said the case would be hard to win. When the power and the law defend the occupation, how else can it be?
Our hosts then fed us a magnificent lunch. Chunks of boiled sheep carcass were served on a large platter of rice. One sheep’s eye stared balefully at me. This was accompanied by a tasty stock, obviously the liquid in which the mutton had been boiled, with some yoghurt added to give it a tang. Several bowls of the stock were laid out with spoons and forks. I took a bowl and started eating the soup but that was a boo-boo! The way it was done, was that several people sat around one platter on the floor, took a spoonful of broth and put it on the rice on the platter near them, mixed it up with the rice and ate, accompanied with chunks of meat. This was definitely not the beaten tourist track!
After the legal work was completed, Hamed took me to another family, a Bedouin one, who lived within a couple of metres of a cyclone fence where a settlement had boldly encroached on their land. They had built the most modern of poultry houses. We could see the electricity lines going from the buildings of the settlement on the hill over the pitiful tent dwelling of the Bedouin to the poultry building. Piped water to the setlement was visible on the ground. Electricity and air-con for the chooks, none for the Palestinians…
It is said by some that there is no Israel peace movement, no Israeli Left, just dedicated individuals. But what I have seen belies this completely. The demonstrations against the Jewish takeover of Palestinian neighbourhoods like Sheikh Jarrah take place weekly and are growing. Ta’ayush have been coming weekly for years to Ber El Idd. There are numerous other weekly demonstrations, such as those at B‘lin against the depredations of The Wall, where Israelis alongside the Palestinians and internationals, battle the tear gas and general IDF brutality.
Indeed this movement is tiny and has little impact on the wider Israeli political scene (how much actual impact does the global justice movement have?) and the grim Israeli consensus of establishing an Iron Wall of force to subjugate the Palestinians. But, like the global social justice movement, the Israel Left is incredibly dedicated and is there. They keep the flame of human decency and justice alive in Israel under extremely difficult circumstances. I take my hat off to them.
Vivienne Porzsolt
10 January 2010
"The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways. The point, however, is to change it." Karl Marx
"He would, wouldn't he?" Mandy Rice-Davies. When asked in court whether she knew that Lord Astor had denied having sex with her.
“I think it would be a good idea” Ghandi, when asked about Western Civilisation.
"He would, wouldn't he?" Mandy Rice-Davies. When asked in court whether she knew that Lord Astor had denied having sex with her.
“I think it would be a good idea” Ghandi, when asked about Western Civilisation.