Palestine's occupation tourism

[Violet_Crumble]

Seth Freedman
guardian.co.uk
Wednesday 20 January 2010 10.00 GMT

On any given Friday in Bil'in, the local Palestinian protesters are joined by scores of Israeli and international activists, who march determinedly alongside the villagers en route to the separation wall. Everyone knows what to expect once they reach the phalanx of soldiers waiting for them on the other side of the barrier: namely, blood, sweat and teargas, and an hour of each side baiting the other before the crowd is dispersed and hostilities cease for another week.

While the cause of the Bil'in residents is entirely worthy, the tactics employed during the protests are far more questionable. Every week without fail, rocks and other projectiles are hurled towards the soldiers by mask-clad youths, known as shabab, while not a finger is lifted by their fellow demonstrators to stop them. Despite billing the march as "nonviolent resistance", the organisers do nothing to ensure the event lives up to such criteria, and by taking no action hand to the army on a plate the perfect excuse to fight fire with fire.

Many of the international activists come to the protest in the hope that their presence will make the troops think twice before using violent measures against the Palestinians, under the assumption that foreign witnesses are worth their weight in gold to those taking on the might of the Israel Defence Forces. Groups such as International Solidarity Movementattempt to absolve themselves of any responsibility for the aggression emanating from the Palestinian side, declaring that since the resistance is "Palestinian-led", they are not going to tell the locals what they can and can't do in the name of fighting the occupation.

At the same time, many of the internationals present are first-timers in the region, and – rather than coming armed with a nuanced understanding of the intricacies of the conflict – simply wander into the West Bank war zone as though day-trippers taking in the sights of central London. Such a phenomenon was the subject of a feature in this weekend's Haaretz, in which the full extent of "occupation tourism" was mapped out in all its dubious glory.

One Italian photography student described his trip to Bil'in as being "like a vacation"; another had no idea whether he was standing on the Israeli or Palestinian side of the separation wall. Dr Roy Wagner, an Israeli activist who regularly attends the Bil'in protest in support of the villagers, was disparaging about many of those standing alongside him:

There are those who spend weeks and months in the village and take the political issue seriously, and there are others who, as part of their trip to Israel and Palestine, drop in at Bil'in to see what's happening... It can also generate antagonism if you feel committed to the struggle and find yourself surrounded by tourists.

Despite his reservations, he stated he would rather such tourists did continue to show up at Bil'in, since they would hopefully leave "more committed to the struggle, and that's what's important". However, given the highly sensitive nature of the anti-wall rallies, as well as the equally high risk of injury to all those within range of the army's artillery, it seems irresponsible to encourage such visitors to the site without them having undergone full and proper preparatory training beforehand.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/jan/20/palestine-israel-protest-tourism

[azurnoir]

1. Thanks I found ISM's reply to Freedman

most enlightening

[Violet_Crumble]

2. Thanks for pointing that reply out. It wasn't there when I first read the article...

So I wouldn't have noticed it otherwise. I'll repost it here:

"In Palestine, solidarity not tourism"

Rebuttal statement on behalf of ISM London

By Pete Jones

As volunteers with the International Solidarity Movement, London we were disappointed to read Seth Freedman?s highly misleading description of the non-violent protests by the Palestinians of Bil?in, and the ISM's support for them ("Palestine's occupation tourism", Comment is Free, 20th January).

Blaming the victim, Freedman bizarrely berates Palestinian participants in the unarmed weekly protests against the Israel occupation army for ?aggression?. This reverses reality. It is the Israeli army that invades the village at night, the Israeli army and settlers that are occupying over 50% of the village's land. Israel is the aggressor.

As someone who lived in Bil?in for almost two months and participated in a number of demonstrations, I witnessed the leaders of the Popular Committee regularly calling for stones not to be thrown during demonstrations. These calls are made both during the march if the youth (shabab in Arabic) are seen preparing to throw a stone, and in announcements during the week. There is plenty of video footage of Bil?in demonstration organisers asking shabab not to throw stones.

The ability of the leaders of the Popular Committee to make such calls may have been diminished recently -- considering the fact that two of them, Abdullah Abu Rahmeh and Adeeb Abu Rahmeh were kidnapped by the Israeli army and are still being held prisoner, and a third, Mohammed Katib has been banned, by Israel, from the village during demonstrations.

It is true that these efforts are not always successful and some hot-headed youth end up throwing stones at the soldiers after the main demonstration, usually after they have been attacked with rubber-coated bullets and tear gas (which sometimes result in death, such as in the case of the late Basem Abu Rahmeh, a peaceful Palestinian protestor murdered by an Israeli soldier in April of last year). Freedman does not live in Bil?in and does not have to live with the regular night-time raids of the Israeli army, in which teenagers as young as 13 are seized, and therefore has no right to dictate the method of resistance to the Palestinians.

Israeli occupation forces have even gone to the extent of infiltrating stone-throwing "mistarvim" (Israeli forces disguised as Arabs) into the protest (see "Gandhi Redux" in Haaretz, 6th September 2005).

Freedman's claim that ISMers are ?occupation tourists? is also false. In fact the ISM has had an ongoing presence in Bil?in since the villagers' struggle began in 2005. It is telling when Freedman claims that "activists and NGO workers who have been operating in the region for years can be relied upon to update the watching world on the state of play in the village " and yet does not name a single one of these mysterious NGOs or activist organisations. The reality is that the ISM has an ongoing and long-term presence in the village. Volunteers often live in an apartment, many staying for months and forging long-term friendships with the people of Bil?in.

ISM volunteers are obliged to attend an intensive training course before they are permitted to work with the organisation. This training ensures ISM activists know the principles which guide the organisation?s work: non-violent action only, Palestinian-led action only and group action only. Freedman seems to scoff at the idea that ISM?s work should be Palestinian-led.

No ISM activist has the authority to tell a Palestinian how to run their resistance. We are not in Palestine to teach non-violence -- in fact the Palestinians' own long tradition of non-violent resistance has a lot to teach us all, from the protests and strikes against the British occupation in the 1930s onwards.

Freedman's description of this central principle as an attempt to "absolve" ourselves "of any responsibility for the aggression emanating from the Palestinian side" is a typically orientalist attitude based on the false assumption that we westerners know what's best for the Palestinians and should lead them.

On the contrary we in ISM view our role as witnessing the occupation so that we can raise awareness in our home countries while at the same time making the environment a little safer in Palestine. As a former Israeli solider, Freedman might know that the Israeli army has different rules of engagement at Palestinian protests when internationals or Israelis are involved in them. Live ammunition is not supposed to be used when they are present, but is allowed when Palestinians are alone.

Freedman has written some excellent CiF articles about the Israeli occupation of Palestine in the past, but shifting away from a colonialist point of view is often a long and difficult process. We wish him a speedy progression.

[shaayecanaan]

3. A good response I thought...

from a group that have been a punching bag for a long time.

While the throwing of rocks doesn't achieve much, I can't recall any other oppressed people getting as much heat for it as the Palestinians. The blacks threw rocks at Sharpeville, and the Indians threw brickbats at the British in the leadup to the Amritsar massacre. I can't recall in either instance anyone seriously suggesting that the throwing of rocks authorised the shooting of demonstrators. Another one of those double standards I fear.

[Violet_Crumble]

4. Yeah, I thought it was and I'm glad they wrote that...

I really like Seth Freedman but on the occassions he gets something wrong, he does go in there boots and all with it. While I think the ISM are idealistic and I wouldn't volunteer to go over there myself coz of the danger, they can't be faulted for the way they train their members...