Palm Sunday in Jerusalem

On Palm Sunday the CPT teams accompanied a peaceful procession of Palestinians from Bethlehem to Jerusalem. It went really well in the sense that it stayed peaceful and prayerful. Most of the CPTers stayed at the front of the procession to try and prevent any clashes, but there were none.

We got to the checkpoint between Bethlehem and Jerusalem and the army stopped us. We sat down in the middle of the road for about an hour. There were about 150 people at that point, because many Palestinians left the procession, wanting to avoid clashes with the army. When the army said we had to move or they would force us off the road, the Palestinian leadership read a statement and then we peacefully left.

Here is the statement:"We in the Bethlehem community have come to you today with a message on behalf of our people. We represent the family members and friends who are imprisoned by these concrete walls and wire fences that now create the Bethlehem open-air prison. You, like the prison guards, control our freedom and ability to live as human beings with dignity in this holy land.

Our strong delegation of civilians comes to you without weapons but with great strength and commitment to deliver this message of peace. In the name of security, you do not permit us to travel to work, to school and to worship in our holy sites in the city of Jerusalem. Your government deprives us each day of the basic human right to self-determination. Each day you keep us from being with our families at weddings, funerals, graduations, birthdays, and religious holidays...

Each day as you come to our city, you serve the system of violence that keeps our people imprisoned and without the ability to live the life of a normal human being. With your guns, tanks, and insults, you teach our children to hate. However, we believe each of you has the power and choice to choose a different ending to this story. We appeal to your conscience and humanity as individuals and as soldiers who may feel there is no way out of this system. Put your guns away, and join us in the fight for peace and freedom."

I was proud to stand behind it.

Settler Violence and Jerusalem Roadblocks

The Hebron settlers seem to be getting scarier and scarier. I was walking with a few others along a road that leads from the settlements to the Tomb of the Patriarchs, and the soldiers at one of the checkpoints stopped us, saying that we could go no farther, because the road is not safe for anyone who is not Jewish. It was interesting to hear that from an Israeli soldier.

We had a meeting with someone from the Hebron government who told us about settlers from Kiryat Arba (the largest settlement in Hebron) confiscating some Palestinian land and building a path from the settlement to Worshipper's Way. Worshipper's Way is the ancient path that leads to the Tomb of the Patriarchs. The story is that it was the path that Abraham walked. We went to inspect, and found the story to be true. The Hebron official checked with all the Israeli occupation authorities and confirmed that the settlers do not have any legal claim to the land.

Tomorrow some Palestinian Christian groups in Bethlehem are planning a march from Bethlehem to Jerusalem for Palm Sunday, complete with donkeys. The procession will challenge the Israeli military checkpoint that divides Bethlehem from Jerusalem and makes it impossible for Palestinians to get from one city to the other. CPT is one of the sponsors of this action and we will all be there. I am looking forward to Mass at the Church of the Nativity, which stands over the spot where it is believed that Jesus was born.

For me the march has great symbolic significance: the Palestinian followers of Jesus today cannot travel from Bethlehem to Jerusalem. Also, Jesus' own procession into Jerusalem had political as well as religious significance. He knew that if he went to Jerusalem he would likely be killed by the Romans, but he went anyway because he knew it was part of a mission much larger than his own life. I feel there is a parallel when we go to Tuwani: We know there is a high risk that Israeli settlers will attack us again, but we go anyway, sacrificing our safety for a cause much larger than ourselves.

There were three separate incidents with settlers in Tuwani this week. First 12 settlers came out of the outpost, one with a gun, and went after Palestinians farming and grazing. Rocks were thrown, but the army got there quickly and they left. A little later about 100 settlers came out of the settlement and occupied a hillside belonging to Palestinians. Then 50-60 Palestinians came out and stationed themselves on an opposite hill. The CPT and Operation Dove folks stationed themselves between the two groups, along with a large contingent of Israeli police and soldiers. There was a 2-hour standoff, until a high-ranking Israeli officer got them to disperse. CPTers spent their time trying to keep people from throwing rocks at each other. Some of the Israeli settlers are armed, but the Palestinians are not. Then the settlers started walking back to the settlement, when they turned off the road and occupied another Palestinian's grazing land, chasing his sheep away.

There is a nonviolent revolution with sheep happening in Tuwani right now, which is why the settlers are getting so concerned. With our accompaniment, shepherds are starting to band together to go in large groups to grazing land they have not been to for many years due to settler harassment. They are reclaiming land previously confiscated by the settlements, emboldened by our presence. This is important, because when the lines get drawn for the Palestinian and Israeli states, they are most likely going to use the de facto boundaries drawn as a result of settler violence and harrassment. Both sides, I suspect, are fully aware of this.

Gaza Disengagement

Palestinians whom I have spoken to are cynical about the Gaza withdrawal plan, for a variety of reasons.

Most importantly, it won't lead to any kind of real independence for the Palestinians in Gaza. Israel will still control the borders, and therefore the economy, and freedom of movement. Gaza is basically one big refugee camp, and this plan holds out little hope for improvement.

Also, they are offering the settlers somewhere between $200,000and $300,000 each to vacate the settlements. This was land stolen from Palestinians originally, for which they were never compensated.

Finally, and probably most importantly, Sharon has stated that along with Gaza disengagement will come consolidation of control over the West Bank, where the majority of Palestinians still live. The settlements here will not be dismantled, but will be allowed to expand "naturally." The illegal expansion outposts are supposed to be destroyed according to a promise made to the Bush administration, but we have seen that this has not happened, and in fact, more are being built.

The roadblocks are supposed to be eliminated, but we have also seen that that is not happening. Israel continues to place more and more restrictions on freedom of movement for West Bank Palestinians, primarily through construction of the separation wall and of roadblocks. This effectively destroys any possibility of real economic life because Palestinians cannot get across borders for jobs or trade.

All of this is being done with the blessing of the Bush Administration, although at this point I don't believe that the Democrats would do much better, at least not according to what they say.

Most of what goes on here is done via negotiations with the U.S. government, because our aid makes up about 15-20% of their annual budget. Most Americans don't know enough about the situation here to effectively influence policymakers, even if they want to.

And so it goes. I do not foresee a successgul Gaza disengagement.

Resisting Oppression

There was another another suicide bombing, this time in Jerusalem. A young woman from a refugee camp in Nablus blew herself up. My God. This has meant that getting to and from Jerusalem went from difficult to nearly impossible, due to Israeli checkpoints and roadblocks, and I did not attempt it this weekend.

This week three of us went to a demonstration in Beit Awwa, not far from Hebron, a place where the separation wall is to go up. It was organized by ISM, another international group with a mission comparable to ours but which is secular. (The differences between ISM and CPT are numerous, but I won't bother with them here!) Anyway, ISM invited us.

It was quite a scene. Practically the whole village turned out, except for those who were working and those who were in school. Even one school let the children out of classes to attend. It was a middle school for girls, and they were all there in their school uniforms, and some of them spoke quite passable English. Anyway, we were there to accompany them in their display of resistance and opposition to the building of this wall and the militarization and land confiscation that goes with it. The Palestinians seem to believe that the presence of internationals lowers the risk of violence from the Israeli soldiers.

The demonstration was an impressive display, until a group of young men started throwing stones. I did not see what started first, the stone throwing or the tear gas. I think it does not matter, though. It is like dealing with small children---it does not matter who started it, because both sides were in it.

To give it some perspective (and I saw all this very clearly, because shortly after it started, I was right up front), the stones were no more than about 5 inches in diameter. They were not boulders. The Israeli soldiers had humvees and other armored vehicles, bulletproof vests, M-16 rifles and oozies. The Palestinian men had rocks. I counted 22 soldiers. There were around 500 villagers, I would estimate--although ISM claims there were over 1000--and no more than a couple of dozen stone throwers.

According to my research, no more than 5% of Palestinians are armed, and those who are have very low-tech weapons, no match for the carefully armed (by the United States) Israeli army. This explains why those people who believe that only violence will get the Israeli army out of Palestine have turned to terrorist acts.

So the young men threw stones and the army shot tear gas bombs, lots of them. I learned a lot about tear gas that day. They shot the bombs right into groups of people, right into the groups of girls, who were huddled together. Shortly after, they started with rubber bullets. I counted 12 people taken away in ambulances. They had to be taken all the way to Hebron, because Beit Awwa does not have a clinic that could handle them. Hebron is not far in distance, but bad roads and hills makes it a 45 minute trip. And then there are army checkpoints along the way, and they do stop ambulances.

The injuries were from rubber bullets, and from tear gas bombs exploding into groups of people, causing the people closest to them to collapse. Two of those taken away by ambulance were from the girls school. There were lots of people--in fact, almost everyone--affected by the tear gas, but most did not need medical treatment.

Of course there were no injured soldiers. The rocks are no threat to them. Why not just sit in the armored vehicles and let the men throw stones? Why not just drive away to a reasonable distance, where they can still observe but not be hit by stones? Why not negotiate with the demonstration organizers, made up of Palestinians and internationals, to allow them to demonstrate all they want if they stop throwing stones? Why this extreme reaction? I don't get it.

It was a battlefield, and the Palestinians lost, as they have been doing from the beginning. When it was over, I asked myself what was the purpose of that. The Palestinians gained nothing from the exercise. Because of the stone throwers, the international press will continue to label them "terrorists." Never mind that they were a small minority of the demonstrators, the vast majority of whom were peaceful. Never mind the actions of the soldiers. I worry that when 22 soldiers can so easily put down 500 or so villagers, then the exercise becomes disempowering for the Palestinians, not empowering.

But then I was thinking about the importance of resisting oppression, especially your own oppression. Demonstrating is a way of saying that you refuse to go along with it, that you refuse to just passively roll over in the face of human rights violations on a massive scale. I think that some form of resistance, even if it fails, must be good for the spirit.

During the fracas, I gave out a lot of handy-wipes and Kleenex to crying little girls. I felt like the Sandra Bullock character in the movie "Two Weeks Notice," carrying handy-wipes to a demonstration. Don't ask me why I always have them with me...

Afterward, many people thanked us for being there. One guy told me that they believe that if internationals had not been there, then the soldiers would have used live ammunition. I asked him if that could really be true. He said he had seen it himself. I can't judge if it is true or not, but even if it isn't, the perception becomes important. Because then our presence enables these villagers to mount some resistance in a space that feels safer to them.