3 agosto 2011, Rebelión http://www.rebelion.org (México)
Tamar Fleishman*
palestinechronicle.com
Traducido para Rebelión por J. M. y revisado por Caty R.
Mientras asistía a una marcha de apoyo a la creación de un Estado palestino me entrevistó un reportero de la televisión canadiense. Me preguntó si creía que los palestinos deberían adoptar un enfoque no violento para lograr sus objetivos. Le respondí que los palestinos deben ser los dueños de su propio destino y que yo no estoy en condiciones de asesorarles sobre eso.
La cuestión acerca de la resistencia no violenta en relación con el próximo "septiembre". "Septiembre", como una metáfora, me recordó un evento del cual fui testigo una noche en el puesto de control del Bor Zait, un evento que para mí es un modelo y un símbolo del verdadero espíritu.
Brindo la documentación de los hechos que presencié esa noche, como un símbolo de esperanza para el próximo septiembre: Una tarde, en el puesto de control de Bir Zait:"¡Éste no es un puesto de control, es un puesto de inspección!", dijo un soldado tratando de deshacerse de nosotros.
Le recordamos que el Ministro de Defensa había anunciado que no debía haber puestos de control en ese camino y respondió: "¿Dijo el Ministro de Defensa que había dos hombres armados por aquí?" No, el Ministro no me dijo nada de eso. Pero yo estaba segura de que en ese momento estaba viendo no a dos, sino a siete hombres armados merodeando por allí y eran los soldados israelíes.
"Asegúrese de detener a un rebaño", gritó un soldado a sus colegas. Cuando llegamos, estaban inspeccionando al primer rebaño (seis hombres): colocaron sus documentos de identidad en el suelo, por miedo a tocarlos, les obligaron a subirse las camisetas, a abrir las piernas y examinaron todo el contenido del vehículo sacando y agitando todo su equipaje. A continuación los soldados recogieron las identificaciones y dieron los detalles a una especie de centro misterioso. Sólo después de comprobar que los miembros de la “manada” estaban “limpios” los liberaron.
Mientras tanto los demás esperaban en sus vehículos nerviosos y con una expresión de profundo desprecio en sus rostros. No se atrevían a acercarse hasta que un soldado les señalaba con el dedo mientras los apremiaba groseramente: “mueve el culo, hijo de puta…”
Inspeccionaron a un nuevo “rebaño”: un autobús de palestinos lleno de hombres, mujeres y niños. Primero sacaron a los hombres. Empezó el ritual otra vez. Los jóvenes, y en especial Yusef, el conductor, no parecían sucumbir como esperaban los soldados y mientras seguían sus órdenes los jóvenes palestinos se burlaban de ellos. La pancarta estaba en la pared –se inició un juego machista con el sonido metálico de la presión en el gatillo de las armas-, los dos grupos se aproximan, los soldados exhiben pistolas de gas y granadas de choque y se carga la atmósfera. El comandante se abalanza y ordena a sus soldados que se aparten. Una vez que todo se resolvió un soldado enojado y amargado, al parecer insatisfecho por el resultado, se acercó a Yusef y le amenazó: “Todavía no he acabado contigo”.
El tiempo se alargaba, pasaban las horas. La respuesta para esas personas de parte de los servicios secretos con la autorización se retrasó. Abdullah, un hombre joven y agitado paseaba por el lugar como si fuera suyo y le reprendieron. Abdullah no se dio cuenta de este reproche y siguió igual, lo que le valió que le enviasen a un campo de espinos cercano como castigo “siéntate allá”. Le obligaron a estar de espaldas a sus amigos mirando al horizonte mientras un soldado le apuntaba en la espalda con su arma para asegurarse de que permanecía en la misma posición aunque le dolieran las piernas y se le agarrotasen los huesos.
Una hora y media después del inicio de este evento, el comandante ordenó a las mujeres y a los niños que subieran al autobús mientras los soldados ordenaban otra línea de trabajo. Ordenaron que colocaran los documentos de identidad en el suelo y que vaciaran sus bolsos. A esta altura, los soldados se dieron cuenta de que no había hecho una inspección física de todos los hombres y cada uno de ellos fue inspeccionado ahora: camisas, zapatos, cinturones, bolsillos…
¿Y ahora qué más? Los uniformados hicieron una lluvia de ideas y se les ocurrió que Yusef (el conductor) debía llevará a cabo el "procedimiento del vecino" (una acción prohibida por el derecho internacional y el de Israel). Le ordenaron descargar todo el bagaje, las bolsas de compras y todas las mochilas de los estudiantes, todo lo que estuviera dentro del autobús. Le ordenaron abrir, juntar y amontonar ropa, objetos personales, libros, cuadernos, cajas de zapatos nuevos... fue una fiesta real e interminable de violación de la privacidad, y todo se hizo en nombre de la seguridad. Como no se encontraron bombas entre las pertenencias y los cinturones eran solamente eso, y nada más, enviaron a los pasajeros de vuelta al vehículo y les devolvieron sus documentos de identidad. Todos excepto Yusef. Después de todo le habían hecho una promesa… Le llevaron al otro lado de la muralla que rodea el puesto de control y el portón de comunicación se cerró con llave detrás de él.
Todo el grupo estaba en el autobús en silencio. Se sentaron y esperaron. A continuación se oyó un alboroto procedente de la zona restringida: golpes, sonido de los gatillos de las armas y fuertes gritos. Como si hubiesen oído una señal, los hombres irrumpieron por la puerta del autobús y corrieron en dirección hacia los soldados que les apuntaban con sus rifles mientras gritaban: "¡Matadnos a nosotros, queremos morir, traed a nuestro conductor de vuelta!".
Se encontraban frente a frente dos grupos de hombres, desiguales en el armamento y aún así, parejos.
El portavoz de los palestinos, un hombre mayor, canoso, sermoneó a los superpertrechados soldados que continuaban apuntando sus armas al grupo que enumeraba en voz alta todos los crímenes e injusticias que habían cometido.
Como la explosión de un volcán, como un absceso que se había ido formando en el fondo de los cuerpos de estas personas, durante los largos años de ocupación, el motín estalló e inundó el lugar con una lava brillante que iluminó ese lugar abandonado por Dios en la oscuridad de la noche, justo en frente de los enmudecidos soldados y delante de nosotros, que quedaron encandilados por la situación
No había miedo en sus ojos ni en su corazón.
Una vez que el temor al rifle disminuyó, la mano que sostenía el arma se aflojó.
Los débiles se hicieron poderosos, y no había nada sino ese momento. Un momento esencial. Era la esencia de años de ocupación y opresión, privaciones, humillaciones y deshumanización.
(Para ver un video documental de la actividad, haga clic aquí).
Traducido al inglés por Ruth Fleishman
*Tamar Fleishman , como miembro de MachsomWatch, una vez a la semana se encamina a los puestos de control que están entre Jerusalén y Ramala para documentar los episodios. Esta documentación (informes, fotos y videos) se puede encontrar en el sitio de la organización: www.machsomwatch.org**. También es miembro de la Coalición de Mujeres por la Paz y voluntaria en Rompiendo el Silencio
**Machsom Watch (Checkpoint Watch) www.machsomwatch.org is an all women Israeli organization of peace activist against the Israeli Occupation of the Palestinian territories. Machsom Watch activists go to the Israeli checkpoints in Palestine to protest and to monitor and report human-rights violations.
Fuente: http://www.palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=17014
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quarta-feira, 3 de agosto de 2011
quinta-feira, 23 de junho de 2011
Why am I organizing the Gaza boat? Because Jewish history commands me
21 June 2011, Mondoweiss http://mondoweiss.net (USA)
by Jane Hirschmann*
People often ask me why I am part of a team to organize a U.S. Boat to Gaza that will be sailing this month with the next International Flotilla to break the siege of Gaza. They often make clear they are asking because I am an American Jew, whose family survived the Holocaust with some surviving family members ending up in Israel. And my only answer is: How could I not?
My parents raised me with stories about what happened in Germany and their family’s escape. I came to see that Israel represented for them a safe haven should there be another attempt at annihilating Jews. And yet, at the same time, they worried it was not so safe a haven given the animosity and physical threats and violence in the area.
But no one ever mentioned the displacement of 750,000 Arabs that was the result of the creation of Israel. I vaguely knew there were people living there, but I was never curious about who these “others” were. All I took away from my family’s history and the atrocities endured was that this should never happen again to anyone, anywhere.
Growing up in the ‘60s, I became active in opposition to the war in Vietnam, the anti-apartheid struggle and the women’s rights movement and later became involved in opposing the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. As a social worker, I was focused on social justice issues but never questioned the relationship between the U.S. and Israel and their policies regarding Palestinians.
Then came the war on Gaza and a real political awakening for me.
Operation Cast Lead and the Goldstone Report were the catalysts. In November 2008, the ceasefire ended: Israeli soldiers broke it in a cross-border raid killing six members of Hamas and, in response, rockets were launched into Israel. Israel, fortified with American weaponry, attacked the people of Gaza. Approximately 1,400 Palestinians, mostly civilians, were killed compared to 13 Israelis. Gaza was pulverized. Judge Richard Goldstone and his team did a thorough report of the causalities on both sides. There was no doubt that the people of Gaza were disproportionally affected.
Right after the invasion in Gaza I realized I could no longer remain silent. I became one of the organizers of a group called Jews Say No! in New York City. We wanted to speak out and to make clear that the Israeli government did not speak in our name as they claimed. I began reading about the occupation, settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, the building of the separation wall, Jewish-only streets for Israeli settlers, special identity papers for Palestinian citizens of Israel (one step away from wearing a yellow star) and the other indignities endured by the people of Palestine on a daily basis. And I saw the total collusion by the U.S. government – its unconditional support no matter what the Israeli government did, including giving them 30 billion dollars over a 10-year period for weaponry (F16s, Apache helicopters, white phosphorous, Caterpillar bulldozers used to destroy homes in Bedouin encampments) used ruthlessly against the Palestinians. This was intolerable for me.
I understand the fears and frustrations of Israelis being fired upon by rockets and the resultant deaths and injuries. But what about the thousands of Palestinians being killed and whose homes, schools, hospitals, farms, mills, factories and infrastructure are being destroyed? What about a people living under a brutal occupation who are being denied the right to live with dignity in their own homeland?
The siege and blockade of Gaza continue. The Israeli government controls the land, sea and air of this small area (25 miles long and roughly six miles wide) where 1.6 million people live. There has been no movement in recent years unless Israel allowed it. (Egypt’s partial opening of the Rafah gate to human traffic, though not to commerce, is a positive sign if it is allowed to grow). Most people cannot travel in or out of Gaza because of continuing restrictions, 61 percent of the population is food insecure, the unemployment rate is around 45 percent, one of the highest in the world, and exports remain banned with the exception of limited items like strawberries and carnations for European markets. Gaza is called an open-air prison even by England’s Prime Minister, David Cameron.
Given all this, I can remain silent no longer. Every day Palestinians are confronting the Israeli government at the wall, at check points, at demolition sites. They risk their lives. Like the Freedom Rides our boat is sailing to call attention to the illegal occupation and siege of Gaza.
My humanity and my Jewishness – Jewish history – demand my being part of an organizing effort to end the inhumane treatment of the Palestinians. The U.S. Boat, called The Audacity of Hope, will sail in late June to Gaza as part of the Freedom Flotilla 2-Stay Human. We will be approximately 50 individuals from across the U.S. committed to non-violence, human rights and freedom and justice for the Palestinian people.
To date, tens of thousands of individuals and over 80 organizations have endorsed this U.S. campaign and each day more sign on to travel with us in name. We travel in peace for justice, and I am proud to be part of this international effort.
*Jane Hirschmann is a member of Jews Say No!, a psychotherapist from New York City, co-author of three books, and one of the organizers of the U.S. Boat to Gaza. More information about the The Audacity of Hope is available at www.ustogaza.org.
UPDATE: Original headline on this post said that Hirschmann is on the boat. She is not.
by Jane Hirschmann*
People often ask me why I am part of a team to organize a U.S. Boat to Gaza that will be sailing this month with the next International Flotilla to break the siege of Gaza. They often make clear they are asking because I am an American Jew, whose family survived the Holocaust with some surviving family members ending up in Israel. And my only answer is: How could I not?
My parents raised me with stories about what happened in Germany and their family’s escape. I came to see that Israel represented for them a safe haven should there be another attempt at annihilating Jews. And yet, at the same time, they worried it was not so safe a haven given the animosity and physical threats and violence in the area.
But no one ever mentioned the displacement of 750,000 Arabs that was the result of the creation of Israel. I vaguely knew there were people living there, but I was never curious about who these “others” were. All I took away from my family’s history and the atrocities endured was that this should never happen again to anyone, anywhere.
Growing up in the ‘60s, I became active in opposition to the war in Vietnam, the anti-apartheid struggle and the women’s rights movement and later became involved in opposing the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. As a social worker, I was focused on social justice issues but never questioned the relationship between the U.S. and Israel and their policies regarding Palestinians.
Then came the war on Gaza and a real political awakening for me.
Operation Cast Lead and the Goldstone Report were the catalysts. In November 2008, the ceasefire ended: Israeli soldiers broke it in a cross-border raid killing six members of Hamas and, in response, rockets were launched into Israel. Israel, fortified with American weaponry, attacked the people of Gaza. Approximately 1,400 Palestinians, mostly civilians, were killed compared to 13 Israelis. Gaza was pulverized. Judge Richard Goldstone and his team did a thorough report of the causalities on both sides. There was no doubt that the people of Gaza were disproportionally affected.
Right after the invasion in Gaza I realized I could no longer remain silent. I became one of the organizers of a group called Jews Say No! in New York City. We wanted to speak out and to make clear that the Israeli government did not speak in our name as they claimed. I began reading about the occupation, settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, the building of the separation wall, Jewish-only streets for Israeli settlers, special identity papers for Palestinian citizens of Israel (one step away from wearing a yellow star) and the other indignities endured by the people of Palestine on a daily basis. And I saw the total collusion by the U.S. government – its unconditional support no matter what the Israeli government did, including giving them 30 billion dollars over a 10-year period for weaponry (F16s, Apache helicopters, white phosphorous, Caterpillar bulldozers used to destroy homes in Bedouin encampments) used ruthlessly against the Palestinians. This was intolerable for me.
I understand the fears and frustrations of Israelis being fired upon by rockets and the resultant deaths and injuries. But what about the thousands of Palestinians being killed and whose homes, schools, hospitals, farms, mills, factories and infrastructure are being destroyed? What about a people living under a brutal occupation who are being denied the right to live with dignity in their own homeland?
The siege and blockade of Gaza continue. The Israeli government controls the land, sea and air of this small area (25 miles long and roughly six miles wide) where 1.6 million people live. There has been no movement in recent years unless Israel allowed it. (Egypt’s partial opening of the Rafah gate to human traffic, though not to commerce, is a positive sign if it is allowed to grow). Most people cannot travel in or out of Gaza because of continuing restrictions, 61 percent of the population is food insecure, the unemployment rate is around 45 percent, one of the highest in the world, and exports remain banned with the exception of limited items like strawberries and carnations for European markets. Gaza is called an open-air prison even by England’s Prime Minister, David Cameron.
Given all this, I can remain silent no longer. Every day Palestinians are confronting the Israeli government at the wall, at check points, at demolition sites. They risk their lives. Like the Freedom Rides our boat is sailing to call attention to the illegal occupation and siege of Gaza.
My humanity and my Jewishness – Jewish history – demand my being part of an organizing effort to end the inhumane treatment of the Palestinians. The U.S. Boat, called The Audacity of Hope, will sail in late June to Gaza as part of the Freedom Flotilla 2-Stay Human. We will be approximately 50 individuals from across the U.S. committed to non-violence, human rights and freedom and justice for the Palestinian people.
To date, tens of thousands of individuals and over 80 organizations have endorsed this U.S. campaign and each day more sign on to travel with us in name. We travel in peace for justice, and I am proud to be part of this international effort.
*Jane Hirschmann is a member of Jews Say No!, a psychotherapist from New York City, co-author of three books, and one of the organizers of the U.S. Boat to Gaza. More information about the The Audacity of Hope is available at www.ustogaza.org.
UPDATE: Original headline on this post said that Hirschmann is on the boat. She is not.
segunda-feira, 13 de junho de 2011
The No-Longer Temporary Occupation
5 June 2011, Forward פֿאָרווערטס http://forward.com (USA)
Getty Images
Separation: A young Palestinian boy rides his bicycle along a dirt road adjacent to the concrete separation barrier built by Israel in the West Bank town of Qalqilya.
By Joseph Dana
One particular success of Israel’s 44-year control of the West Bank and Gaza Strip has been the government’s ability to convince the Israeli population of the temporary nature of the occupation. Every sector of Israeli society, except religious settlers and the military establishment, understand the occupation to be an ephemeral security measure necessary only in the absence of a peace agreement with the Palestinians. Ask any Israeli on the streets of Tel Aviv whether they think that Israel will permanently control the Occupied Territories and the immediate answer will be no, it is all about immediate security. This charade is exploited by successive Israeli governments as they proclaim a desire for peace while simultaneously creating permanent facts on ground like Jewish settler roads, checkpoints for Palestinians and new settlements.
Despite the proximity of the Occupied Territories to major Israeli population centers, few Israelis other than soldiers and settlers visit the Territories. Since the creation of Israel’s controversial separation barrier and the denial of thousands of Palestinian work permits to Israel, Israeli society has all but disengaged from Palestinian society. This allows the occupation to feel distant and outside the everyday lives of Israelis. Palestinians, of course, are still confronted with the daily presence of Israeli military power and mechanisms of control.
Some Israeli scholars, such as Bar Ilan University lecturer Ariella Azoulay, and Tel Aviv University professor Adi Ophir, have proposed that without this perceived temporariness and external character of the occupation, Israel would have a hard time maintaining its mandatory military conscription. A greater number of citizens would question the long- term objectives.
Israel’s occupation is a violation of no less than three international legal statutes, including the United Nations charter, The Hague Agreement of 1907 and the Geneva Convention of 1949, all of which forbid an occupying power from moving civilian populations into occupied land. However, whenever serious criticism of the occupation arises both within Israel and abroad, the state is able to claim that its presence in the territories is only about protecting Israeli civilians from security risks. Nothing more.
Years of international pressure have actually engendered a climate in which many Israelis have become reticent about the entrenchment of the occupation. And yet, every Israeli government since 1967 has increased settlement activity. The only way to explain this paradox is by understanding that Israelis percieve the occupation as a necessary, but temporary, evil. The growing settlements do not present a problem then, but are rather simply a solution to security concerns.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in his recent defiant but well received speech to the United States Congress, made it clear that he doesn’t see things this way. He argued instead that Israel “will not return to the indefensible lines of 1967.” Netanyahu also noted that Jerusalem — a fundamental issue in the conflict — will remain undivided under full Israeli control. Effectively, he was saying, Israel is unwilling to part with the West Bank according to the internationally accepted two-state solution framework.
Advancing his argument for permanent control of the West Bank regardless of security concerns, Netanyahu made the case that the West Bank is a necessary part of Israel’s cultural and religious composition, based on Jewish history. He also dispelled the myth that the Occupied Territories are somehow external from Israeli society, arguing that Jewish settlements are basically “neighborhoods and suburbs of Jerusalem and greater Tel Aviv.”
Netanyahu’s speech has left the peace process dead in the water and presents Israelis with a harsh reality they had been ignoring: Permanent occupation which can only be maintained through a form of apartheid governance. His theoretical framework sent a clear message that Israel not only requires permanent occupation for its continued existence, but also, in fact, desires it because of religious, cultural and security concerns.
Israeli society is now forced to confront the implications of endless occupation and possible annexation. Quite simply, Netanyahu’s rejection of the two-state solution as defined by the 1967 lines reflects a shift in the way most Israelis have come to understand the occupation, forcing them to see it not as a temporary measure but as a permanent fixture of Israeli reality — a reality that might cost Israel its standing in the international community.
*Joseph Dana is a journalist and writer based in Tel Aviv and Ramallah. He has written for The Nation, Le Monde Diplomatique, The National and Haaretz, among other international publications. He is a contributing editor of the independent Israeli web magazine +972.
Related
•Reporters' Roundtable: How Israelis View Settlements; Life in New Square
•JVP, Harsh Critic Of Israel, Seeks a Seat at the Communal Table
Pro-Israel Group Polls Palestinians on Peace Process
Getty Images
Separation: A young Palestinian boy rides his bicycle along a dirt road adjacent to the concrete separation barrier built by Israel in the West Bank town of Qalqilya.
By Joseph Dana
One particular success of Israel’s 44-year control of the West Bank and Gaza Strip has been the government’s ability to convince the Israeli population of the temporary nature of the occupation. Every sector of Israeli society, except religious settlers and the military establishment, understand the occupation to be an ephemeral security measure necessary only in the absence of a peace agreement with the Palestinians. Ask any Israeli on the streets of Tel Aviv whether they think that Israel will permanently control the Occupied Territories and the immediate answer will be no, it is all about immediate security. This charade is exploited by successive Israeli governments as they proclaim a desire for peace while simultaneously creating permanent facts on ground like Jewish settler roads, checkpoints for Palestinians and new settlements.
Despite the proximity of the Occupied Territories to major Israeli population centers, few Israelis other than soldiers and settlers visit the Territories. Since the creation of Israel’s controversial separation barrier and the denial of thousands of Palestinian work permits to Israel, Israeli society has all but disengaged from Palestinian society. This allows the occupation to feel distant and outside the everyday lives of Israelis. Palestinians, of course, are still confronted with the daily presence of Israeli military power and mechanisms of control.
Some Israeli scholars, such as Bar Ilan University lecturer Ariella Azoulay, and Tel Aviv University professor Adi Ophir, have proposed that without this perceived temporariness and external character of the occupation, Israel would have a hard time maintaining its mandatory military conscription. A greater number of citizens would question the long- term objectives.
Israel’s occupation is a violation of no less than three international legal statutes, including the United Nations charter, The Hague Agreement of 1907 and the Geneva Convention of 1949, all of which forbid an occupying power from moving civilian populations into occupied land. However, whenever serious criticism of the occupation arises both within Israel and abroad, the state is able to claim that its presence in the territories is only about protecting Israeli civilians from security risks. Nothing more.
Years of international pressure have actually engendered a climate in which many Israelis have become reticent about the entrenchment of the occupation. And yet, every Israeli government since 1967 has increased settlement activity. The only way to explain this paradox is by understanding that Israelis percieve the occupation as a necessary, but temporary, evil. The growing settlements do not present a problem then, but are rather simply a solution to security concerns.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in his recent defiant but well received speech to the United States Congress, made it clear that he doesn’t see things this way. He argued instead that Israel “will not return to the indefensible lines of 1967.” Netanyahu also noted that Jerusalem — a fundamental issue in the conflict — will remain undivided under full Israeli control. Effectively, he was saying, Israel is unwilling to part with the West Bank according to the internationally accepted two-state solution framework.
Advancing his argument for permanent control of the West Bank regardless of security concerns, Netanyahu made the case that the West Bank is a necessary part of Israel’s cultural and religious composition, based on Jewish history. He also dispelled the myth that the Occupied Territories are somehow external from Israeli society, arguing that Jewish settlements are basically “neighborhoods and suburbs of Jerusalem and greater Tel Aviv.”
Netanyahu’s speech has left the peace process dead in the water and presents Israelis with a harsh reality they had been ignoring: Permanent occupation which can only be maintained through a form of apartheid governance. His theoretical framework sent a clear message that Israel not only requires permanent occupation for its continued existence, but also, in fact, desires it because of religious, cultural and security concerns.
Israeli society is now forced to confront the implications of endless occupation and possible annexation. Quite simply, Netanyahu’s rejection of the two-state solution as defined by the 1967 lines reflects a shift in the way most Israelis have come to understand the occupation, forcing them to see it not as a temporary measure but as a permanent fixture of Israeli reality — a reality that might cost Israel its standing in the international community.
*Joseph Dana is a journalist and writer based in Tel Aviv and Ramallah. He has written for The Nation, Le Monde Diplomatique, The National and Haaretz, among other international publications. He is a contributing editor of the independent Israeli web magazine +972.
Related
•Reporters' Roundtable: How Israelis View Settlements; Life in New Square
•JVP, Harsh Critic Of Israel, Seeks a Seat at the Communal Table
Pro-Israel Group Polls Palestinians on Peace Process
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