It hardly feels like Christmas time this year!

On the 24th of the December throughout the World, Christians will gather in churches, with family, friends and communities to celebrate the birth of Christ. They will be chanting about an Holy Night in an Holy Land where the son of God was born and was welcomed by shepperds, foreigners and angels.

It certainly were very different times back when Jesus was born in that cold night, in that crib in Betlehem. The land was also under occupation, life was hard work and not much else. The Roman soldiers, like the Israeli soldiers today, were receiving the taxes for the Emperor, administering the local allegiances and keeping the "peace".


We are today, as we have been yesterday, and will be tomorrow at a crossroads to say and live up to that fundamental truth that :

"All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood."

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is not the privilege of a few, it is the duty and endowment of all. In Palestine, as in many other places of the World, we are failing Humanity by being timid, coward and silent. To speak the truth, to proclaim it is our only option.

 

UNTITLED

Witness statement as given to B’Tselem on Sunday 21 November 2010

At 6am on Friday 19 November 2010 M.A.N., aged 22, went with his grandmother through the agricultural gate at az Zawiye to help her tend the family’s olive trees on the west side of the separation barrier, where they own land.

At 11.30 while the grandmother continued to work on clearing the land, M. came back to the gate intending to go to the mosque to pray. As the gate was not yet open, he sat down on the ground and leant against the gate. He put his pruning saw and his bottle of water on the ground beside him and waited. He was pleased when two jeeps appeared as he thought that they would open the gate early, but the soldiers were verbally aggressive towards him, they then started beating him and kicking him. He asked why they were attacking him and was told that he had caused trouble to the Israeli security by sitting by the gate. It seems he had set off an alarm. They accused him of trying to cut the barbed wire because he had his saw with him.

Another 15 jeeps drove up and the soldiers sent a radio message that they had caught a troublemaker. A female soldier from the last jeep was told to go away when she asked the others why so many were surrounding this man who had no weapon. Most of the soldiers realised this was a false alarm and they drove off leaving two jeeps.

The officer remaining said, ‘You are alone now, I can do anything.’ M. tried to shout for help but they tied a gag around his mouth. The officer told him to take off his shirt and trousers and his underwear, they put his hands behind his back and handcuffed him, they then posed for photographs, one soldier each side of him. He was then blindfolded but he continued to hear the clicks of camera shutters. There were male and female soldiers present. There was some laughter and taunting. Proposals of a sexual nature were made.

Still naked he was put into a jeep and driven to a military camp. There was music, laughter and dancing while they decided what to do with him. They made him sit naked in the hot sun and told him they would put the photos on facebook.

He was then sent to an officer called A. who started crying when he realised that he had several things in common with the victim: they were the same age, both married and both fathers of small daughters. A. said that he had seen M. on the camera at the gate and knew that he was sitting still. He removed the blindfold and the handcuffs and gave M. his clothes. When he heard the other officer coming, he put the handcuffs back on him but this time in front; he also replaced the blindfold, but loosely.

The first officer led him to a small jeep, the sort used by officers, and he drove around for 1 hour 15 minutes accelerating and braking sharply so that M., who was not wearing a seat belt, was thrown suddenly forward and back. When they reached a checkpoint in the separation barrier, the officer kicked M. out of the jeep, and while M. was lying on the ground, he threw out the saw and bottle of water.

A few minutes later a car arrived at the checkpoint. Palestinian workers were being driven by an Israeli. They saw that M. was in handcuffs, and the Palestinians asked the driver to take him towards his home. The driver was suspicious at first and asked what had happened. M. showed him his ID and his previous permit, the current one having been taken by the soldiers. (Because he is a young man he has to reapply for a permit every two months.) The driver was convinced and drove him to the az Zawiya bridge from where he was able to get home.

*The above is an edited version of the statement collected.Source is undisclosed according to publisher concerns.   

"Help us!!! Don't you know we are also humans?"

Women in Black, West Jerusalem

Mouna and Fayez Taneeb, Tulkarem

"WALLS"

School class in Al-Quds

 "SECURITY REASONS"

Fish stand in the Tulkarem Refugee Camp

"IDF OPERATIONS"

Refugee children, Tulkarem

MILITANCY and ACTIVISM

Children playing football, Al-Khalil/ Hebron

SCHOOL CHILDREN

Children waving at the window, Al-Khalil/Hebron

FARMERS

Children and soldier following settler tour, Al-Khalil/Hebron

WORKERS

Nomika Zion, Sderot
 

MOTHERS and FAMILIES

the title is a quote from an email sent by a 14 year old girl from Gaza, during Operation Cast Lead.

According to Nomika Zion from the Other Voice, the root of the Occupation and human rights abuses lies, in part, with a dehumanizing propaganda in which the Other is no longer seen as an Human Being.

this land is their land...

Today I woke up in a village surrounded by settlements, i have been here

for two days now and it seems so pleasant and peaceful that I find myself 

wondering whether I should come for vacation. 

 

The only noises you can hear most of the day are the bleating of the goats, 

the occasional bark of the watchdog, chicken's chuckles and children's voices.

After weeks of morning duty at the checkpoint and agricultural gates 

my spirit is sullied with the daily humiliations, indignities that many 

have suffered here most of their lives.

This countryside calm only in appearance was necessary even vital to

maintain some kind of impartial balanced view of this world,

to transform mounting frustration and resentment into something 

other than hate.

The neighboring house abridges three old women with whom, on account 

of the language barrier, I can only exchange a smile,the customary palm

of the hand to the chest with a gentle bow of my head and : "Salam Aleikum!" 

They sit on their terrace, halfway to a hilltop they no longer are allowed

to reach, not on account of age, but on account of the fears and

violence of their neighbors,settlers, who took over the hilltops all around.

Sit looking at their surrounded village which settlers covet and Israeli 

soldiers slowly yet steadfastly subtract from them for "security reasons".

I feel my throat closing in, a deep sadness from the understanding that 

this womenare someone's mothers, grandmothers and sisters, 

that they too could be my family and that this land, this dignity 

and this humiliations are also my own.

I leave this village behind today, but i leave also a part of my humanity

and yet i hope and know that these three kind old women will somehow

find a way in which to rekindle the fire within which is struggling.

Non violence is an uphill battle - Davids story

"We will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends. "

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Umm Al-Khair children at their kindergarden

In my second day visiting Hebron/Al-Khalil, we went to the inauguration of a kindergarden in Umm Al-Khair, a small Bedouin village, in South Hebron Hills, neighboring the Carmel settlement.

Today's inauguration represented a glimpse of hope for the inhabitants of this village and surrounding areas who have persevered despite settler violence and Israeli Army incursions aimed at uprooting them. They have no running water, no access to electrical current(solar panels have been installed recently), because, being Area C, i.e. under full military control with regard to law enforcement, building and planning they are systematically denied permits.So one can easily understand why this was a day of celebration.

Among those celebrating were UNRWA, Villages Group an Israeli-Palestinian partnership, the village council and Australian Leichhardt Municipal Council, together with some of the at least 19 children expected to start there.

Israeli-Palestinian partnership - an untold tale

While celebrating the achievement we met David, a young Israeli and two friends of his. Yesterday, he tells us, while on a visit to some friends of this same village, a soldier had him stopped and required their IDs and passports. They were asked about what they were doing there and where were they aiming to go.

David replied:" I am going to visit my friends in the village", to which the soldier replied:" You are visiting terrorists?". At which point, David explains us, he couldn't contain himself: "How can you make such a generalization?"

The soldier: "Well, they have guns and bombs!" David replied that:" You're the only ones here with guns. You and the settlers!" Discontent with the reply the soldier asked about the contents of the bags only to discover it carried sushi for dinner. He reacted with amazement. David told him that there was no reason for such, after all, he, probably the soldier also, enjoyed a good sushi meal.

Having been allowed to pass, David and his friends were thrown rocks at by the soldier along with the cry: " Go, you'll be safer with your friends!". Not long after, an army sergeant came and told his subordinate to stop. By then, David had already been welcomed by his Palestinian friends at the Camp.

A picture is worth a thousand words

Taybe Checkpoint - Palestinian workers queue to reach their workplace

back from school to the refugee camp- palestinian refugee

Attil Agricultural Gate - The Wall and the farms behind it.

Palestinian farmer - awaiting his turn to access own land

Roll up your sleeves . . .

Olive trees preceded all things in this land, you can even find some older than 10 000 years. I haven't come across any yet but mainly because i haven't had the time to look for it.They are so important that some settlements pay an enormous amount of money to have one transplanted into its entrance as a sort of proof of belonging, of connection to this land. It must be an odd thing to feel the need to show you belong, like the transplanted tree most were also born, growing and living elsewhere before. 

From dawn to dusk under the sun, with a pause for breakfast and lunch, farmers families gather in the fields to harvest the olive. Throughout generations they've been doing this and they shall continue to. Harvesting is no easy task, it is a long hard work even when rakes are available to comb the branches. 

Unfortunately the difficulty of the harvest is not what farmers consider the most troubling, settlers and their "security zones", restriction on access to their fields and trees enforced manu militari by the Israeli Army are their main concerns and not without reason. 

Some of them are granted access once a year to pick their olives, with no other possibility to come and prun the trees or plow the fields necessary to improve the quality of the soil and consequently of the harvest.

Settlers yearly arson the groves, interfere violently in the harvest, steal the crops under the complicit gaze of the Israeli Army yet with an impressive resilience this farmers keep on returning to the place where their trees are. Until the day they won't be there no more, either ones or the others.

Taybe checkpoint - "Cry of the turnstiles in the darkness"

 

"Silence becomes us, we ignore, we avert our eyes and the silent daily march of humiliation continues...a march to which, many by their silence, their complicit complacency, contribute..."

 At Taybe checkpoint Palestinian workers queue by the hundreds each morning way before dawn to enter Israel, they wait in the dark, in a cage like system that conducts them through a turnstile, a metal detector, a fingerprint machine, a verification of their israeli issued magnetic cards, the permit, their identity card and a search within the Israeli Army computer system.

Twice a week two members of our team are on presencial duty there, to register any irregularities, any human rights violations.

this land is my land...

Today i got up at dawn, headed to an agricultural gate - a door in the Wall, the Israeli Government has been building since the year 2000 for "Security Purposes", and that the International Court of Justice declared "to be illegal" in its Advisory Opinion on the Legal Consequences of the Construction of a wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory  of 9th of July 2004.

Every day J., like many other farmers, throughout the Occupied Territories,  at early dawn, has to cross such gate to access his land. He went through a long process to get a magnetic card and then a permit from the Israeli authorities, the administration of which falls upon the military. Then each day, during a period of time fixed by these same "authorities" he is able to cross a gate where this magnetic card and permit are checked and his fingerprints taken. The gate opens three times in the day, if he and every other farmer in the West Bank is "lucky" enough. His work schedule is subject to this "authority".

By these agricultural gates you find only those few who have got permits, those "lucky" few who besides owning their land, which they all do, have the permit to go through.

Here i sit, every other day, at dawn, during these three months trying to say, by my presence, we care, you're not forgotten. Oddly enough though, these men and women, some well into their 60s are the ones that through their welcome, their smiles, their presence give me the hope that i wish i could convey to them... 

You are probably wondering: "why is he there? What does he expect to accomplish with his presence?"
These questions are dangerous. They reveal a tiredness with this subject, due to excessive media coverage, a fatalistic approach that i cannot have. I am tempted at times to have it, to let it go. And i am then confronted with the kindness of a people with whom i have no kinship and with whom my only resemblance is my long beard, my loud laughter and a shared humanity.

Drawing strength from their empathy, their will to resist, their courage none of which seem to portray the long years of waiting, the forgetfullness of the International Community and its lack of backbone, i am here and i have a task to accomplish.

"Pour que l'Homme ne soit plus l'esclave de l'homme. So that Man shall never again be the slave of man."

these were also the questions my colleague and i were asked today by two very young Israeli Army soldiers (Israeli Defense Forces). They seemed puzzled, confused, bored by our presence, so after accomplishing their duty at the gate they came, their gear imposing a certain respect, to ask us who we are and why we're here. Some words came to my mind, a certain reply instantly vibrates within my chest, but some sense of duty and a reflected reply comes instead: " We are from the World Council of Churches and we're here to see that everyone is doing fine!" Still a bit of my "wise nature" reveals itself in the nature of my reply.

I would rather have said:" Why are you here?"

An important part of visiting is the welcome

Heading to Telaviv feels quite surrealist, not only because of all the security measures which are, obviously, with regard to Israel, special:
coming to Frankfurt we have to pass a very detailed security check. A special gate where each person is carefully searched, and the queue is as long as the number of passengers of a Boeing747. There is no rush, no haggling, after all this is just a normal everyday life detail if you're on your way to Israel.
It is a strange experience, despite being a frequent flyer I must admit it stresses me a bit. I guess also the fact that the authorities actually shutdown part of Frankfurt airport, fact of which I am made aware through the planes info system makes for a bit of the apparatus!

At Ben Gurion airport i found a jewish family, fellow travelers with whom i had not exchanged a word, awaiting for me after my first security check to ask if everything was ok with me. Bliss in the fog to come!

This has been a journey I've longed for...can't quite put the finger on it to tell you why... maybe growing up with an obsessive interest about Shoa, the accounts of the survivors, the confessions of the perpetrators, the collected books, photos, exhibits and conferences attended are explanation enough... maybe a desire for justice, a need for the recognition of each individuals dignity, the belief that every single man counts is the background, the thought behind the thought, the why it matters. This is me paying respect and honouring those who have fallen, saying my silence, no! Rather the muteness is disbelief, sadness...
It hurts when reconciling my deep affection for the Jewish people from which I descend from, with the Occupation. 

Step two: finding a tone with which to identify...

...it is not the easiest thing to do...
being a quite private person gets you used to discuss your points of view with a few in an environment of your choosing... not being a person who shies away from its own point of view i often realize that putting too much effort in discussing them publicly or with whoever doesn't really pay especially if it is a controversial subject and then offcourse all subjects really worth discussing tend to be anyway...
...so, this being all new to me, with the exception of some briefs and appeals filed with the Courts, here goes nothing... I would like you to take sometime reading the posted disclaimer and then off we go...into the jungle of controversy...let's keep it civil, remember ourselves to always see the forest not the tree...

every journey starts with departure...

... all this time and after so many different goodbyes, to places, people, projects, ideas and feelings something within still feels the travel element to be absolutely foreign to my body...
So as usual before any journey i stress over packing, or just about anything...eheh the fun part is that i actually get to be very relaxed on the day itself...

Step one : establishing a blogg should be easier

...here i am desperately trying to fit my ambitions into my reduced technological knowledge. Needless to say some of those surrounding me fear my tunel vision which makes me unable to listen, see or answer to their interpelations.

well i have still some days ahead to fine tune my editing choices and layout... lets see how this will turn out!