Topic: Just Another Day Under Israeli Occupation - Conclusion

topic by
Sandra
11/16/2001 (14:21)

Just Another Day Under Israeli Occupation
Part 3
By Jennifer Gulbrandson

Voices Reaching Out to the United States
We asked several Palestinians what they would say if they had a captive U.S. American audience. These are some of the responses we received:
• Meriam is a 24-year-old mother of two who was shot in her stomach while standing in the door of her home. She was pregnant at the time and so although she survived the attack with a torn uterus and rectum, her 5-month-old unborn child did not. The fetus was killed in her womb with what is thought to have been a high velocity bullet that severed the baby’s head and arm.
Meriam, who was living in Egypt prior to 1993, moved back to the Gaza Strip after the Oslo accords were signed. She is still waiting for the peace to come and said, “We have no weapons. Your government gives the Israelis weapons and won’t give us protection.” Meriam doesn’t want to lose another child and she doesn’t want her children who are still alive to wake up in the middle of the night in their wet beds to the sound of shelling or gunfire.
• Wafa, a young girl we visited in a Khan Yunis elementary school, said that she wants to have a life of freedom and peace like children in the United States and she asks for international protection for her family and all Palestinians.
• Wissam is a headmaster at an elementary school. He said that he is not a political man; his life is devoted to education. As a school administrator he wishes for his students to come to school and make it through the entire day without experiencing incontinence or a severe lack of concentration. He hopes for a lifting of the closures so that the many well-educated people of Gaza could travel outside of their 28 x 7 mile jail to work as contributing members of society.
• S.S., a Palestinian man of God, said that he respects the United States as a great power, but he suggested that U.S. leaders could use their power and position in the world to encourage and enforce positive behavior and not support oppressive occupations.
• Ahmed, a university student, said, “We watch CNN. We know that you know how many Palestinian children die. Yet these lives are just numbers to you. One Jewish baby dies and the entire world stops.”
• Mahmoud, a military official asked, “Where does the primary responsibility lie in resolving this conflict? With the occupier or with the occupied? The occupier, having significantly more power, must also be accountable for using it responsibly. The practice of overlooking this responsibility and blaming the victim has got to stop if we are to take progressive steps forward.”
No one and nothing is Safe
The main message that I received repeatedly throughout the interviews, briefing sessions, written reports and side stories that I took in while in the Occupied Territories was that there are no rules you can follow that will keep you from harm’s way. From the Palestinian woman, shot and killed while walking to the market in El-Bireh on the West Bank, to the 15-year-old boy who was shot in the throat and paralyzed after stepping out of the center where he submitted a picture for an art contest, every Palestinian is a potential target.
Other targets include animals (donkeys and sheep have been used as target practice for high-tech weapons), water (wells have been sealed with liquid cement, water tanks on top of houses have received concentrated attacks, and the river that runs through the Gaza Strip has now been nicknamed the “Black River” because of the raw and toxic waste that is dumped into it within Israel proper), and acres upon acres of centuries-old orchards and agricultural fields have been destroyed. Israeli state-sponsored terrorism is being used against Palestinian civilians, their environment and their quality of life, and for what? Security? Whose security?
Not only are Palestinians the target of Israeli military aggression, so are internationals who are not ready to unconditionally support “the great democracy of the Middle East,” such as the U.N.’s Mary Robinson, the U.S. Mitchell fact-finding delegation, and other human rights monitors, reporters and relief workers.
The message of no one and nothing being safe was easy to understand intellectually . . . but it was only after I had my own experience at Al-Matahen Junction that I began to have a slightly deeper and more emotional understanding of what a military occupation means.
A personal experience of fear and resistance
Abu Mohammed drove T.K. and me north from Khan Yunis back up to Gaza City. The traffic was considerable and as we approached Al-Matahen the Israeli tank that had been off to the side of the road slowly rolled out to the middle of the road to stop the movement of Palestinian cars completely. I was unsure what was happening until I saw a big empty tour-like bus speed by along with a few other vehicles. Since we weren’t going anywhere I thought I would take advantage of the situation and take out my video camera. I had been told before not to take pictures of this area but I thought that if I held it in my lap as if it was off it would be undetected and we all would be safe. I was wrong.
While I was in the middle of the Jeep’s back seat, the two people in front said they would keep an eye on the Israeli soldiers who had binoculars. After about a minute they said, “Put it down now.” I did and thought that the adventure was over. Again, I was wrong.
A soldier I had not noticed until that point, positioned in the back of the tank, moved behind his M-16 and pulled something over his head. Everyone in the car froze as we saw that he was not only aiming his gun directly at our car, he was now in firing position.
Many things raced through my head as I sat staring down the barrel of that gun just 40 feet from me. “If I am hit but live this will be okay . . . as long as I live.” “If I die and everyone dies too who will stop the spin doctors from claiming that we were terrorists compromising Israeli security? The trip, our efforts will be for nothing.” “How old is the boy behind the gun? 19? 20?” “I don’t want to die.” “My mom supported me in this trip . . . I can’t betray her trust and hurt her by dying.”
With all that I had anticipated on this trip I didn’t imagine being in this situation, feeling the absolute fear that I felt then. My stomach turned repeated and I knew that at that moment, my life, my safety was in someone else’s hand, the hands of someone I neither knew not trusted.
But as the minutes wore on, my fear grew into something else I didn’t fully recognize . . . indignation or anger, perhaps. All I remember thinking was that the person in front of me was using his military might to intimidate and terrorize me and the others with me. Why? Because I had a camera? How was I going to respond? Would I cower and legitimize his aggression with my submission? I began to boil with the need to be emotionally stronger than the man who was confronting me. Then I did something that I have never done before, and something I regret doing now: I gave this gunman the finger. A vulgar gesture, yes, but one given nearly involuntarily at the time.
Abu Mohammed turned white with fear. I realized immediately that my small, stupid act of resistance could have easily gotten my Palestinian friend killed or severely beaten. And where would that have left his wife and three children?
After the gun was removed from our car and after we were allowed to pass (30-45 minutes after being stopped) I earnestly and repeatedly apologized to Abu Mohammed for my careless action. Even now I am ashamed that I didn’t think before acting . . . yet, through that experience, I felt just a little closer to understanding what lies behind Palestinian frustration and resistance.
Is There Hope?
Every Palestinian I met felt frustrated and betrayed not only by Israel but also the international community, especially the United States. Still, as cynical and distrusting as many were, there was still a spirit of hope that the price they have paid and are still paying would be worth it in the end.
The practical side of this hope lies primarily in the belief that the U.S. government could—instead of giving unconditional economic, military and political support to Israel—work with Israel to implement policies (not just sign agreements and then insist that “no date is sacred”) that would truly work toward securing a just peace for everyone in the region: Israelis and Palestinians, Jews and Arabs of every faith. But this means that the United States would need to reformulate the archaic short-term conflict management approach to a more just conflict resolution approach that would hold everyone accountable and no one above the law.
Will this happen? Only if a lot more U.S. Americans demand it. There are many Jewish, Israeli, Arab, Christian, Muslim and other human rights groups that support a just peace in the Middle East, starting in Israel/Palestine. Anyone who wishes to receive more information on or become involved with some of these groups may consult the local American Arab Anti-Discrimination (ADC) Chapter at ADC_MN@hotmail.com.