Letters from Israel-Palestine


I/P Two: Gaza, Still

Date: Wednesday, the Fourteenth of January, 2009

Today I heard my first air-raid sirens, from the open windows of the ICAHD office above Ben Yehuda, the main walking mall in downtown Jerusalem. I don't remember hearing one before, and I was struck by confusion: air raid in Jerusalem?? From where? Does this mean there's a war? I asked an Israeli guy in the same room as me.

"There's a war on, didn't you hear?"
I regarded him quizzically.
"Over a thousand people have died now." Oh. Right. That war.
"Yeah, but what's happening here in Jerusalem?" He didn't know.

People more or less shrugged and continued what they were doing. A friend reassured me, telling me not to worry. I wasn't really worried, I reflected, I was mostly confused. Five minutes later, out on the walking mall heading towards my favorite lunch spot, I overheard cell phone conversations making sure everyone is accounted for. "I'm doing fine, I'm downtown, is Yoni at home?" "Yeah, we're all okay." "I don't know what it is, but I haven't heard of anything yet." And, a few short minutes later, the public active in downtown Jerusalem gained the information of what happened, as if by osmosis. "It wasn't anything. Just an air-raid siren malfunction." About an hour later, the siren blared again, and I pointedly ignored it this time, thinking of the boy who cried wolf. Meanwhile, in the north, a few katyushas made their way towards Israel from Lebanese territory- no one hurt, no one claiming responsibility.

Later, at night-- "Here, take a look at this."
"Yeah, what's up?" I echoed blandly from across the room, engrossed in the laptop I was attempting to mend.
"Look at this." I took a few steps towards my friend's desk, and watched his monitor as he played al-jazeera footage from Gaza. It shows a cameraman getting shot, lying prone on the ground, and then three more shots, as the man has his life cut short by an Israeli sniper.
Many Palestinians here are addicted to the news. Israelis too, but for a number of my Palestinian friends, "what are you doing tonight?" brings a confused, uncomfortable, perhaps betrayed look, followed by, "watching the news." Palestinians watch their people terrorized, dying, suffering, over and over again, as the nightly tragedies and dramas play themselves out in front of their eyes, re-kindling their hopelessness in the world, their sense of aloneness, their conviction that justice is not available, not to them.
I notice this experience of identity; I don't personally know anyone in Gaza, and for my friends who I'm spending time with in Jerusalem, they might have distant relatives in Gaza but they mostly don't have people they are close with there. The immense fascination, anger, devotion has everything to do with the people in Gaza being targeted specifically as Palestinians. For some Jews, the attack on the community in Mumbai moved something deep in us, even though we've
never been there, even though we don't know them. We feel it viscerally when there are people being attacked simply for being Jewish.

And that's how it is for Palestinians now. For people who want to claim that Israel is technically targeting Hamas (how effectively could be argued, over 300 of the 1000 people killed are children), I would analogize red-baiting and McCarthyism's role in enforcing antisemitism (by splitting and marginalizing Jewish communities, preventing Jews from effectively organizing on behalf of working-class people, and convincing Communist Jews and Religious Jews to abandon
each other) to the current policies towards Hamas in the Palestinian community. For Palestinians, it's splitting those who want to resist the conditions of occupation that they are experiencing (and further marginalizing these people, which drives them towards violence) from the people who are too tired or cynical to believe that they will be able to effectively resist, and would just like a little peace and quiet around here (and, by the way, will accept enforcing the will of Israeli security needs via the PA and their security forces). And from the perspective of building towards a long-term solution, the policy of the elimination of, and non-negotiation with Hamas is problematic, since at least some portion (many those dissatisfied with the PA status quo) of the Palestinian people identify with the group's agenda. Final status negotiations cannot leave these people out of discussions, that will simply lead to internal conflict and sabotage.

I cannot imagine the rage and challenge I would feel towards the world if 1000 Jews had just been killed in three weeks. I cannot imagine what I would do; whatever it was, I would want it to be something that I could explain to my children, ten years later, when they ask me what I was doing then to prevent this injustice. I don't want to explain to my children that, as people, we are more-or-less powerless. I want to say that I at least tried to do something.

And I want to extend myself no less to those I am faced with.

Peace,
Jacob

Veahavta L'reacha Kamocha- Love Your Neighbor As Yourself (says the Torah)

The US Army War College recommends talking with Hamas
[http://ricks.foreignpolicy.com/node/10703]

My friend Aaron Shneyer used to work with "Seeds of Peace" and
co-wrote this article about "people-to-people" peacebuilding.
("Seeds of Peace" is a program bringing Israeli and Palestinian youth
together to explore peaceful interrelationship)
[http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0114/p09s02-coop.html]

A Nice Jewish Boy's Analysis
[http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=213380&title=strip-maul]

"Nine Israeli human rights groups called on Wednesday for an investigation..."
[http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/15/world/middleeast/15mideast.html?hp]

   "In Germany, they came first for the Communists, And I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist;
   And then they came for the trade unionists, And I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist;
   And then they came for the Jews, And I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew;
   And then . . . they came for me . . . And by that time there was no one left to speak up."
-Martin Niemoller, a Lutheran pastor

RedSolid > Writings > Israel/Palestine Writings > 2009 > I/P Two: Gaza, Still