Under the shadow of the 'disengagement'

[Violet_Crumble]

by Mijal Grinberg
July 20, 2005

The ease with which I pass through the security check at the Jerusalem bus station reminds me of the privileges I regained when I left At-Tuwani. As I think of At-Tuwani' which I left ony two hours earlier' images of the past week go through my mind. The sight of Nai'm yelling and driving his sheep away from the poisoned land. Settlers laying in ambush for Um-Hafez', Kifa's young son who can not understand why he can't drink the milk and the smile on Mohammad's wifes' face as she was expecting him back from prison. The bus takes me back to Tel-Aviv and to the modern amenities of a comfortable life. More than anything, I yearn for a hot shower. A week's supply of water for a resident of At-Tuwane and three kinds of soap later, I still can't forget the reality of life at At-Tuwane.

Much has discourse been happening in the south Hebron hill, which is where At-Tuwane lies, but not much of it has been heard amidst the talk of disengagement. Palestinian children are attacked with stones on their way to school and international and Israeli peace activists are beaten and shot at by the settlers. In recent weeks a new form of abuse was added: the grazing lands of the village which is near the ‘Ma’on Farm’ outpost were poisoned with a particularly dangerous poison. When the growing list of incidents is considered an ugly picture emerges. Children and Adults were seriously injured, some of the assailants were documented and identified and forty complaints were filed in the past four years yet it seems that no one is being held accountable.

The area is in a part of the west bank which is still under Israeli administrative and security control and includes about 20 Palestinian villages. The area also includes a number of Jewish settlements and outposts. The latter are unauthorized settlements though in practice, the creation of outposts is encouraged and supported by the government and the army from behind curtain of legal fictions- the workings of which are detailed in a recent report by Adv. Talia Sason. The report was commissioned by the prime minister’s office in response to American pressure and it details how the local councils, the army and various government offices offer logistical support and funding or turn a blind eye to the outposts. The South Hebron area settlers who are considered relatively extreme have been making the lives of the local residents miserable. In the midst of the current talk of disengagement on the one hand and the expansion of settlements in the west bank I decided to go out and experience for myself the daily lives of these people who seem defenseless in a struggle for survival. I wanted to change my point of view, to gain a deeper understanding of how it feels to be a Palestinian villager under Israeli control. I chose to wear a head cover, pants and a skirt and try to pass as a Palestinian. Wearing my new outfit I got into a car which took me to downtown Hebron in order to join the residents of Twane which is adjacent to the ‘Ma’on’ settlement and the ‘Ma’on Farm’ outpost.

The trip to At-Tuwane is tense. The looks I get through the car window tell me that they think I am one of them- a Palestinian. I am relived that I don’t have to speak and prove them wrong. In spite of myself I can not rid myself of my ingrained fears.
We reach At-Twane which is the largest of about 20 small villages in the area. Near them is an army training grounds which is not used much and also a number of settlements and outposts. In most of these villages the people live in caves without running water or electricity. Even though I am expected my heart rate raises as I approach, I am waiting for the moment when I will be addressed in Arabic and give myself as a Hebrew speaker. An outsider.

Shortly after arriving in the village I am given an escort. My escort is Muhammad, a resident of Yeta – the central city in the district. Muhammad's family owns land in At-Twane and a few years ago the army has destroyed the house they built there because they had no building permit. His brother Mahmud still lives in the remains of the house.
In spite of Muhammad's excellent Hebrew I seek out the company of the women and join the group of them in front of Mahmud’s house. Actually it is not exactly a house in he sense that we know it. These are three old walls with a plastic tarp for a roof. I approach and receive two kisses on my cheeks from one of the women, other women kiss me three or even four times. “How do you know how many times to kiss” I ask one of them. “The more the better” she smiles. We sit down and look at each other. “Jewish?” she asks. “Yes” I answer. We make some more small talk until the atmosphere becomes more relaxed. It turns out that we are waiting for Mahmud, the husband of one of the women who was arrested two days ago, “He has been in Kiryat Arba’a for two days now”. “What happened” I venture. “He went out with the sheep and two other shepherds, that was on Sunday” smiles his wife, a gold tooth shines in her mouth. A beautiful woman of 37, a mother of 11 children. “Nine settlers came down. Mahmud panicked and called the police but it took them a long time to come. When the police finally came they took my husband and M’fadi”. I look at her confused, thinking I must have missed part of the story. I hope that I will get the rest later. “Have you talked to him since he was arrested?” I ask. “No” she says and gets up to milk the goats. “If I were you I would have died” I tell her hesitantly. She bursts out laughing repeating the sentence to her daughter in law and her sister. Now the three of them are laughing. I get a little insulted thinking they are laughing at me, but one of them tries to explain. “For us it is a matter of course, there are always incidents with the settlers. They come down, beat us and then we are the ones taken to jail”. Now they laugh again. My naïve question will be repeated to all the women.

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=107&ItemID=8341

[pelsar]

1. on israeli TV

it was on israeli TV about 2 weeks ago.....during prime time by israels premier newscaster.....
it doesnt justify the shithead settlers (and Im being nice about their description....) nor the police but that now has a chance for change

[bemildred]

2. A response to your locked thread:

I don't intend to debate, but as a matter of respect, some thoughts:

1.) I think the UK police are fools, and their behavior is reprehensible in the worst way. They have allowed the bombers to drag them down to their same level of expedient violence, and to no good end. Shooting of random citizens in a state of panic is not what you want to see from the police.

2.) Apparently the British cops think that is just ducky. I expect the political reaction to that should be interesting to watch.

3.) You are right, from what I have seen, the IDF would not have the chutzpah to say something like that in such a baldfaced way.

4.) I will happily concede the IDF is far from the worst of it's ilk.

5.) I find the comparison with the dead British fellows (Hurndall, St. Rachel, and one other) a bit of a stretch, and similarly the comparison of the situation in Israel with that in the UK now. The IDF is both more professional and experienced than the British cops, and more culpable for deliberate premeditated violence with the intent of political repression. (A dicey thing to say, when one considers Ireland and the history of the Empire, but domestically the UK has been at "peace" for a long time now.) Individuals caught up in the mess, particular IDF soldiers for example, must be considered on their own merits, of course, and the sort of endemic racist activity the settlers pursue does get the IDF blamed for things that are not truly it's doing. On the other hand. sniper killings of unarmed non-belligerents are every bit as reprehensible as what the British cops did, regardless of the justifications provided.

6) One must distinguish between activities done to stop or prevent imminent violence, and those done to harrass and repress a politically inconvenient occupied population, these are not the same thing and do not have the same moral standing. They are constantly conflated for propaganda purposes, but that is false. You cannot determine the culpability of acts of violence based on speculative states of mind imputed to the perpetrators. (One must, of course, make a similar distinction between legitimate Palestinian resistance to their political situation and the indiscriminate use of the terror weapon.)

7.) Your feeling of schadenfreude is perfectly understandable, and I can't say I blame you a bit for that.

Regards

[pelsar]

3. bemildred...thanks...

for a very well written response that reads very balanced...(usually thats all i ask for....)

two aspects....I know very well the complications of the different situations and my only reason for "dragging" Hurndall in was to show just how easy it is to make an incident sound monsterous.

The British cops, at least its my impression, is that they panicked, simply out of lack of experience. We've had our own "ticking bombs" at bus stops etc without such results. (most famous one was an arab israeli who recognized that there was a sucide bomber waiting with him for a bus, borrowed the palestenians phone, called the police, sat down next to the bomber and waited for the police....the bomber blew himself up with minor injuries to the israeli arab)

_____________________

funny how this sentence made me feel good:

I will happily concede the IDF is far from the worst of it's ilk....

strange isnt it...it makes me feel good to know that we arent the worse

[bemildred]

4. Hey, I'm a US citizen. The maxim about glass houses applies. nt

[methinks2]

5. thanks for the link

I just sent it to a friend who was in Hebron last month. Her experience was so upsetting she spent the night vomiting.