Letters
from Israel-Palestine
I/P One: Sov Shavua Sov
Date: Thursday, the First of January, 2009
The
world is upside-down, and spinning. For those of you under a rock, or
more to the point, not in Israel/Palestine, this past Shabbat the
Israeli military began an air offensive against the people of Gaza,
specifically targeting the leadership of Hamas in an effort to
completely destroy their capacity as an organization. It seems Israel
has taken a tip from United States history and decided that, if Israel
doesn't like a democratically-elected regime, it can do something about
it (albeit a regime presiding over a territory which launches rockets
at Israel.) And, similar to Lebanon, it claims to be acting in
response, while the plans for this particular operation have been in
the works since the beginning of the ceasefire, six months ago.
This past week has been confusing and pulling me in different
directions, one of which has been protest. Learning about the attack on
Saturday afternoon, I felt a huge amount of anger and sadness, and
immediately after shabbat ended I got onto a bus organized by activists
to bring us to an impromptu demonstration in Tel Aviv. About 500 people
gathered, and a small march towards the defense minstry brought us to
an area of sidewalk where we were unable to continue further due to a
police barricade. It was, for the most part, a quiet protest; six
determined Israelis (including a friend of mine) went to take the
street and were arrested.
The week of Christmas I went to Bethlehem three times; twice with a
Jewish person I'm connected to through Machon Pardes, a co-ed yeshiva
out here, and their associated friends, and once on Christmas eve with
a group of Germans. I got to reconnect with Palestinians in the
Bethlehem/Beit Sahour area: my friend the souvenir salesman, my friends
working at the IMEMC (International Middle East Media Center.)
Over Christmas, Bethlehem was still hopping until the wee hours of the
morning with tourists, which was fun; Bethlehem is usually pretty quiet
at night. The accompanying militarized Palestinian security forces
cordoning off the area adjacent the Church of the Nativity were a
surprising addition to the festivities.
A treat for me was getting a tour of Deheisha on Christmas Day. The
tour guide recounted how, back in 2002, when a woman living in Deheisha
did a "suicide-attack" in Jerusalem, people in Deheisha were
nationalistically pleased, out in the streets waving flags. (It's still
challenging for me to believe that people are ever gladdened by
violence!)
He went on to tell of a good, quiet friend of his from the camp, who
killed himself in an attack, unbelievably, and how that shifted his
perspective, to where he felt personally against the attacks, and adds
to that a political analysis that he thinks that the attacks
politically bring more bad than good for Palestinians, a departure from
the predominant feeling six years ago.
He spoke about his support for a one-state solution; moreso than ever
before, I don't hear anyone talking about two states as an endgame,
which is a rather challenging proposition for Zionism. A Jewish Israeli
friend I talked about the question of states with channeled the
political hopelessness/realism of the time, and said that she thinks
the State won't last. It won't be able to reconcile its conflicts in
order to create either two states, or a bi-national federation, which
means that a "Jewish state" as such will be a particularly interesting
experience that we've gotten to participate
in. Without any meaningful political leadership in this arena, people
are dragging out their predictions of when this conflict could possibly
be "resolved" on some level. The earliest I've heard is 20 years.
I've now spent three shabbats in Israel/Palestine, and it has changed
my reality immensely. On the one hand, I am more grounded in a world
that is more-or-less familiar to me: the Jewish culture, the Western
amenities, friends who happen to be here. I generally know where I can
go and how much things cost. I'm back in ulpan, learning
Hebrew for about four hours every morning (I'm the only non-Arab in my
class!).
On shabbat, I pray at a familiar minyan, with people I know. Sometimes,
in the afternoon, I wander down to ICAHD (Israeli Committee Against
House Demolitions) and see if there's anything I can help out with for
an hour or two: documenting, editing, that sort of thing. And I am also
experiencing the "situation" with all of its contradicting experiences,
and attempt to create some sort of "balance" in my life of who (and
whose perspective) I am experiencing in this area. Topping this off
with the pain accompanying the witnessing of violence, I am sent for a
small tailspin.
In Jerusalem the "alternate reality" manifests in different ways; some
people are scared of riding the buses, the sound of an ambulance
tearing through the streets brings on a whole extra level of fear and
anticipation. Most Jews are still doing their thing, although perhaps
tempered with themselves or friends of theirs potentially being called
up for reserves.
The Palestinian segment of society is definitely mourning. A general
strike was initiated day-of, and lasted for a few days. The
Palestinians in my ulpan were specifically not celebrating this new
year, because it's not a time for celebration. I can barely imagine
what the feeling would be like in Israel if a similar proportion of
their society were being killed at the rate of people in Gaza. From the
people I've been in contact with, it's about the experience of
their people being targeted, and the betrayal of their leadership
(there's a general sentiment that this operation is carried out with
consent from Abbas' government.) While governments, for political
reasons, have effectively split Palestinians into factions (Hamas and
Fatah, Gaza and the West Bank, Israelis, Jerusalemites, and
non-Israelis), the people remember their solidarity with each other,
and feel the pain just as much.
May the year 2009 bring us compassion and joy, and an end to violence
and war.
Yours in J-town,
Jacob
Here's a couple of Ha'aretz articles for you with different political
slants.
On the pre-planned invasion: "Disinformation, Secrecy and Lies: How the Gaza Invasion Came About"
[http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1050426.html]
David Grossman's "Is Israel Too Imprisoned in the Familiar Ceremony of
War?"
[http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1051008.html]
RedSolid > Writings > Israel/Palestine Writings > 2009 > I/P One: Sov Shavua Sov