Freedom Riders for the 21st Century - From Ramallah to Jerusalem

     Why copy the U.S. civil rights activists that got onto segregated buses to confront the systems of discrimination against Black Americans? Why especially if you are not American and not Black?
Six Palestinian activists risked their lives on November 15 just as the U.S. riders did in 1961, exactly 50 years ago. This time is was to defy Israel's apartheid bus system that forbids Palestinians from getting on buses that provide public transportation to and from Jewish settlements The buses travel on Jews-only roads through Palestinian land, taking settlers from their colonies in the West Bank to cities in Israel. There are a few stretches of such roads that Palestinians can use because there is not yet an alternative route designated for them. One of these stretches was chosen for this action. But the participants first gathered in the Palestinian city of Ramallah with the goal of getting to Jerusalem with the same ease as the Israeli Jews.
     My informant, Mazin, as one of the six riders, had expected to be beaten and jailed or worse. He has a record of many previous arrests for his anti-occupation activism which could be used against him, and he knew of the hatred and violence of some settlers and Israeli Border Police towards Palestinians. Thus it was with a sardonic smile that he told us how the secret band set out for the bus stop they had picked to board a settler bus.
     Mazin was in the lead car, and behind him were "about 30 cars of media and supporters." They came to a bus stop, but the organizer who had scoped it out ahead of time wasn't sure it was the right one. "Maybe we passed it." Mazin immediately did a U turn (not legal) and every car behind him did the same thing. It was quickly evident that they had not yet passed the chosen bus stop, so Mazin did another illegal U-turn, and so did all thirty cars! After this hazardous but comical ballet of cars, they arrived at the bus shelter and went and stood in line with other would-be-passengers -- all settlers.
     The first three buses passed them by, but the fourth bus driver didn't seem to know what to do and let them board and pay their fare. When they got to the next stop, the police were waiting. Meanwhile, there was better media coverage than Mazin had seen at any other demonstration for Palestinian rights.
The bravery of these six Palestinians, five men and one woman, cannot be overestimated. The outcome, however, was mercifully mild. Police carried limp protesters off the bus, did not beat anyone, and released them, plus two others who had been arrested at the same time, within a few hours. Since the reasoning behind this treatment, clearly decided on the highest level of the security aparatus, cannot be known, there is no way to predict how future actions will be handled. But the organizers of this Freedom Ride, mostly young people with no political party affiliations, are planning their next moves. Stay tuned.

It's Quiet in Palestine, or is it?

       I have spent yesterday and today with nothing to do but wander around this small city of Beit Sahour, do a little food and umbrella shopping, read my emails and study some Arabic vocabulary. It has been very peaceful. The excitement is all on Al Jazeera News, particularly about the new uprising in Tahir Square, Egypt. Except...
     I went to the website of IMEMC, which you can do too, (http://www.imemc.org/)  to read Palestinian news items from last week, because I knew that this little pocket of peace that I was enjoying was not the full picture of life in occupied Palestine.  But, like the families I had delicious midday meals with on Saturday and Sunday, I was experiencing a welcome bubble -- a respite not to be taken for granted.

Since mainstream media outside of Palestine does not tell about the daily human rights violations and abusive conduct of Israel's army and settlers in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, we get the impression that it is quiet here, so the occupation can't be all that bad. I'm going to pass on the news reports I just read online because they help to remind us of why we need to work together to end this occupation.
     The village of Amenzil in the south of the West Bank can't keep their new solar panels, paid for by a Spanish NGO, because it is an "unrecognized village". Neither the vlllage leaders nor the Spanish NGO could get the required Isreal-issued permit for the panels nor even for the buildings on which they are erected. There are many such villages which are denied electricity, water, schools and roads because Israel wants this land without its inhabitants, and uses every pretext to push the people out. The NGO applied for a permit but, getting no response, installed the panels to supply electricity to the village. Typically, Israel waited until the project was up and running before declaring it illegal.
     Al Khader, a community adjacent to Bethlehem, was the scene of a settler attack last week. When one farmer, his wife and sister went to work their land, they found settlers already there, cultivating the earth around the olive trees that did not belong to them. The settlers from nearby Etzion settlement then assaulted the Palestinians before they left.
Additional incidents for the two weeks from November 3 to 16 were recorded by the Palestine Center for Human Rights. Here are some of them:
     * In Gaza there were 8 Israeli missile attacks in which 4 Palestinians were killed, 14 wounded, a central Marine Police station destroyed and a greenhouse damaged. Two of those killed were bombed in the shelter where they had gone for safety. The Israeli army also fired at working farmers from observation towers along the border between Israel and Gaza.
     *In the West Bank there were 91 Israeli military incursions into Palestinian communities resulting in 14 detentions, which Palestinians call "kidnappings since they don't recognize Israel's right to take police action inside Palestinian territory. Among those detained were some of the men that Israel had just released in the prisoner exchange deal brokered by Egypt just a few weeks ago.
     *The Israeli army tore down and destroyed 3 utility poles connecting two Palestinian villages in the barren south because there was no permit for poles. It is impossible for Palestinians in their own villages, on their own land, in their own West Bank to get any kind of permit from Israel which exercises control over every minusha of civil life. I have seen these villages where the lack of electricity next to well-lit settlements is so shocking that even Tony Blair once admonished Israel for this practice.
     *The settlers from Yitzar settlement uprooted 25 productive olive trees in an effort to drive Palestinians from the land. While this is a common practice by right-wing settlers, Israel never punishes the settlers. To the contrary, the Israeli army's job is to protect settlers even when they are attacking Palestinians.
     *Settlers set fire to three Palestinian vehicles.
     *The Israeli army bulldozed land and uprooted trees near Qalqilia in the North to extend the boundaries of Oramit settlement. The army also bulldozed 4 private homes near Jericho in the East because they were winter homes for Palestinian families. That would be like bulldozing your house on Cape Cod because you only use it in the summer.
     *The Israeli military used teargas and rubber-coated steel bullets to disperse nonviolent demonstrators at seven different protests against on-going, increasing thefts of their land and freedom of movement.

     All of these things happened in two quiet weeks of military occupation.
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　

Palestine - A State or a Bantustan?

Doris and I just had tea with Jeff Halper, the director of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, excellent analyst of the Palestinian situation, activist and friend. Jeff helps me remember that not all Israli Jews are alike and some are my allies. Jeff is just back from a 6 week tour which ended in  South Africa where he was an expert witness at the Russell Tribunal on Palestine, held
in Capetown.

It had started to rain, so we arrived at Jeff's new office dripping wet. He showed us around as he finished hanging some framed photos and posters on the wall. Then he suggested we go to a coffee shop to chat. We all ordered tea, and were soon disecting Jeff's trip, the meaning of apartheid, the Arab Spring and Palestine's bid for statehood.

The purpose of the two weeks of testimony at the Russell Tribunal was to see if the facts on the ground in Israel /Palestine meet the international legal definition of "apartheid." Jeff's testimony alone would seem to be enough to prove that they do. Israel's policy of demolishing homes in the rural areas (Area C under the Oslo Accords) in order to force Palestinians into the urban and village areas (Areas A and B) is the same as pushing them into bantustans as occurred in apartheid South Africa.

Israel denies that its policies are based on race and thus it cannot be accused of apartheid. But its policies are clearly based on religion, as Jews are not targeted in the same way as Palestinians. Jeff argues that such policies are aimed at separating the two peoples, to the advantage of Jews over Palestinians/Moslems. And, he adds, Israel does not use the word "apartheid" but does use the Hebrew translation of that word, which is "hafrada". The term “hafrada" came into use under former Prime Minister Ehud Barak as the definition of Israel's policies toward the Palestinians.

Next, I wanted to hear Jeff’s take on l) the impact of the Arab Spring on Palestine and 2) the value of Palestine’s bid for a seat at the United Nations. Jeff agreed with me that last Fall when I was here, hope for peace was at an all time low. He thinks the Arab Spring has given people a new sense of hope and energy. Also, he doubts that Mahmoud Abbas would have tried for a seat at the U.N. if not for this boost from the Arab Spring

As for the actual bid for statehood, Jeff was critical of the nay-sayers among some Palestinian intellectuals and activists who waited until the last minute to raise objections such as Abbas not representing the PLO or the refugees outside of Palestine, and his still calling for a two-state solution when it seems o bvious that there is not enough land left for a separate Palestinian state. But more importantly, Jeff worries that Palestinians do not have a plan or stategy for where they are going. If they don’t get statehood, it is possible that Abbas will resign, leaving a vacuum into which Israel will have to move, most likely with renewed military occupation of the cities.

It is a probem that noone has articulated a one-state goal--given the fact of the settlements strewn throughout the West Bank and East Jerusalem which makes a separate state hard to envision. Everyone who supports Palestinians wants the Israeli occupation to end. But then what?? Jeff plans to write another article about this dilemma. Meanwhile, he wonders if Palestinians might take a civil rights approach by demanding a vote within the system that controls them and has taken away so much of their land. If Israel denied them the vote, could it still claim to be a democracy and not an apartheid state?

As a footnote to the above, we had to ask why the U.S. insists on supporting Israel to the degree of seeming to be subservient to it. Jeff named three main reasons: l) the pro-Israel lobby, especially strong among Democrats, 2) the Republican Christian Zionists, and 2) the arms industry. Seventy percent of the huge aid package of $3 billion a year must be spent on U.S. military supplies.

These realities seem intractable , but hope springs eternal. Who could predict the Arab Spring would bring down two dictators - so far.