Many Davids versus One Goliath
Although constantly faced with sharp restrictions imposed by the Israeli security forces, courageous Palestinian-Israeli peace activists are persisting in their protests against the Wall, sometimes with success. Mona Sarkis reports on the activities of the joint action alliance
Alone against one of the most powerful armies in the world – this is the feeling shared by many Palestinians in the West Bank who are battling the systematic dispossession brought by the Wall. Sometimes, their despair even drives people to believe they have no other choice but to turn themselves into "living weapons."
In an effort to stem this sense of powerlessness and isolation, Palestinian peace activists founded the "International Solidarity Movement" (ISM) in 2001.
"Anarchists Against the Wall"
The idea was for like-minded activists of various nationalities to join forces with the Palestinian villagers in peacefully fighting against what Sarah Assouline from the Israeli movement "Anarchists Against the Wall" characterizes as "creeping ethnic cleansing":
"We, the Israelis, must be aware that this is not about security, but about the greed for land, about profits made by construction companies and about a new variation on the Jewish ghetto," says Assouline. "Only this time, we are the ones building a Wall and imprisoning another ethnic group inside." "Anarchists Against the Wall" has been cooperating with ISM since 2003.
Mas'ha, a village 25 km northwest of Tel Aviv and north of the illegal settlements Elkana and Etz Efraym, was the site of the first joint campaign in 2003. The activists warned the villagers that bulldozers would soon be coming to their town.
Economic interests
Suicide bombers had never been found up in Mas'ha, and yet the concrete barrier that was to be built there, in some places one meter high with watchtowers, would separate the farmers there from 98% of their fields. They would be awarded no compensation for the "transfer" of their land to the Israeli side and for the loss of what had been their sole source of income for hundreds of years.
"Mas'ha is important to Israel," claims the young Palestinian woman Huwaida Arraf, "because its fields lie above the western part of the mountain groundwater basin. Of the 600 million cubic meters of water that are pumped out of the reservoir annually, Israel claims 500 million for itself," says one of the founders of the ISM solidarity movement.
"With the ISM, we wanted to interest foreigners in witnessing what is going on here, in the hopes that they would report back to their countries and the media," Arraf says. The aim was prevent events like the one in February 2001 from being allowed to happen again and again: at that time, Huwaida was part of a student demonstration protesting against the destruction of the only street in Ramallah leading to the University of Birzeit.
Palestinian students face a Sisyphean task
"The Israeli army had ripped a gaping hole in the road, rendering any access impossible – this affected the students as well as the residents of all the surrounding villages, cutting off their route to Ramallah and their workplaces, their schools and medical care."
The students began to repair the road with their bare hands. "We didn't want to use any tools, so the occupiers could not accuse us of carrying weapons." As soon as they were finished, the army tore up the street again.
"When I turned on CNN that evening," Huwaida Arraf bitterly recalls, "there was talk of 'clashes' between Palestinians and Israeli soldiers. 'Clashes'? In every other conflict on this planet, the headline would have read: 'Unarmed students demand their fundamental right to an education from occupiers armed to the teeth'."
The Wall was then ultimately built after all in Mas'ha, and the camp evacuated. The Israeli army deployed live ammunition against the Israeli demonstrators, something they usually try to avoid:
"In the case of a purely Palestinian demonstration, live ammunition may be used, but when Israelis and people of other nationalities are participating, they instead use clubs, tear gas, rubber bullets, noise and shock grenades," reports Sarah Assouline.
At the same time, she points out that even the "internationals" cannot rely on being considered "untouchable": Tom Hurndall of Great Britain (shot at in April 2003, died nine months later) and the American Rachel Corrie (run over by a bulldozer in March 2003) are two of the best-known victims among the ISM activists. The Israeli bulldozer driver who ran over Corrie was already back behind the wheel that April.
Successful resistance against dispossession
Notwithstanding all the defeats, there are still some positive accomplishments to report – for instance from Bil'In, a village northwest of Ramallah, nearby the expanding settlements of Kiryat Sefer and M'nura. In spring 2005, the villagers founded a committee to organize peaceful demonstrations against the expropriation of land. Up to 60% of the land in and around Bil'In was in jeopardy.
The Israeli Supreme Court decided in favor of a temporary construction ban. And the ongoing Friday demonstrations, supported by ISM and the "Anarchists," have made the village of 1,700 synonymous with non-violent protest.
Another example is the town of Budrus. Thanks to the dogged resistance mounted there from December 2003 to March 2004, the Israeli army was finally forced to move the Wall to correspond with the position of the Green Line.
One of the town's most successful and spectacular protest actions took place on December 7, 2004, when some 45 "Anarchists," together with townspeople and ISM participants, demonstrated against the Wall and on behalf of Ahmad Awad – a Palestinian teacher and activist who was arrested in an arbitrary crackdown.
The demonstrators carried signs with the words "I am Ahmad Awad" in several languages and had left their passports at home, just in case. Their goal: to be collectively arrested as "Ahmad Awad." This was both a clever move against the all-powerful Goliath – and an avowal of solidarity.
The four months the protesters spent demonstrating daily in Mas'ha were the expression of a special brand of civilian engagement – the kind of engagement that can still be seen in the village of Bil'In every Friday at the joint demonstrations of the peace initiatives.
Mona Sarkis
© Qantara.de 2006
Translated from the German by Jennifer Taylor-Gaida
Qantara.de
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