M.K. | Summer Camp Participant
The build went well for day twelve with some camp participants and Palestinian workers hauling multiple buckets of cement and steadily working to get closer to finishing the Hamdan home. Most of the camp participants, however, went north to see both Israeli and Palestinian towns of the northern region. We visited an Israeli town west of the Green Line and an Israeli settlement, as well as two Palestinian villages trapped behind the wall. The contrast between Israeli and Palestinian towns is stark and telling of the effects of the occupation.
Our route took us up highway 6 from Jerusalem through the West Bank on a road used primarily by Israelis and blocked with boulders from Palestinian villages. Highway 6 follows the route of the (so called) ‘security’ Wall providing an interesting look at how the Israeli government attempts to minimize the impact of the Wall on Israelis. In some stretches, the builders of the Wall have painted lovely archways leading to green grass and blue skies. In other places, the Wall appears only half as high on the Israeli side because of the slope of the land, but the full height on the Palestinian side. You never see the reverse with the Palestinian side being shorter than the Israeli side.
The first town we visited was Kfar Saba, which is an Israeli town west of the Green Line. Kfar Saba was a town for both Palestinians and Jews up until 1948. In 1948, the Israeli military expelled the 1,473 Palestinian residents as part of “Operation Coastal Clearing”. The residents fled, many to Kfar Saba’s twin city of Qalqilya. The wall now separates Qalqilya from Kfar Saba. We met with the Vice-Deputy Mayor of Kfar Saba, Amos Gavrielle, to discuss the relationship between the twin cities. While Gavrielle expressed regret that the Wall existed, he could not comment on the affects of the Wall on Qalqilya. There were several incidents of shootings from Qalqilya to highway 6 and at least one person had been killed, so Gavielle justified the Wall’s necessity to protect even one Israeli life. We brought up the fact that in many cities in the US, there are shootings such as this from poor neighborhoods to highways and no such walls exist. We also asked whether it might be better to wall off Kfar Saba than Qalqilya, which has a wall encircling it. Gavielle countered that the victims should not be punished, and a wall around Kfar Saba would punish the residents there. Since there were a few shootings and most residents of Qalqilya were not involved, and Gavielle admits that the Wall is punishment, one would think that the conclusion that the Wall constituted collective punishment, which violates international law, wouldn’t be far behind, but Gavielle couldn’t even admit that the Wall goes all the way around Qalqilya, not just along highway 6.
After Kfar Saba, we ventured into the West Bank (occupied Palestinian territory) Israeli settlement of Alfe Menashe to meet with D.R. and hear about his experience as a settler and his perspective on the settlement issue. His physical appearance reminded many of us of the old cowboy image as he wore a cowboy hat and carried a pistol in a holster. D.R. first started by defending settlements as not violating international law and going into the technicalities of the Israeli interpretation of international law. Israel does not recognize the settlements as being illegal even though the International Court of Justice and ICAHD do. D.R. seemed to rely on our not being familiar with legal documents such as the Balfour declaration and the UN charter, but many of us are quite familiar with these documents and are aware of the ambiguous language and how interpretations vary, so this line of argument convinced none of us, but did lead me to re-read some things.
In the final analysis, D.R. saw the future as a one-state solution with different areas of control for Jews and Palestinians with freedom of movement and the dismantling of the Wall, but only if security could be guaranteed. D.R. sees himself as a moderate and moved to the settlement for the quality of life. He says he would leave if asked by the Israeli government, but doesn’t see Alfe Menashe as a ‘problem’ settlement as it isn’t deep in the West Bank.
We left the manicured lawns and swimming pool of Alfe Menashe to visit Imateen, a Palestinian village cut off from both Israel and Qalqilya, the nearest major town, by the Wall. We met with the mayor and several town officials to hear about the affects of the Wall on Imateen. One man relayed the story of his son who was shot by Israeli Border Police on his way to school. The police had asked him to stop in Hebrew, but the boy didn’t know Hebrew and kept walking to school. He was killed by the shot.
Our meeting with the mayor and several town officials of Imateen.
Imateen got help from a French NGO to develop water services to the village which they completed over a year ago. The village and several NGO’s have worked since then to try to get a permit to run a line to the village so they may have water, but, so far, they have failed to get the permit. Alfe Menashe can build a swimming pool, but Imateen cannot even have running water. Next, we moved on to Hajja village, which means market in Canaanite. Hajja suffered as well from the Wall with separation from agricultural lands, general freedom of movement and access to markets, as well as a lack of water. We met with the Mayor and several town council members (which includes two women) to discuss Hajja’s situation. The most pressing problem for the town aside from those listed above was a lack of a sewage system that led villagers to continue using traditional methods of sewage treatment. With the growing population of Hajja, this means too much sewage in the ground water, too little water, and the outbreak of ameobic dysentary. Hajja lies primarily in area C and receives little help from its Israeli occupiers except to demolish their houses. The mayor invited us to visit the sites of several demolitions, but our time was short.
The day was long and hot, but helped me understand the ideology behind settlements and occupation as well as the grinding constraints on Palestinians. We were unable to see Qalqilya at all due to internal political issues, but seeing the surrounding villages, cut off from their market, showed the effects of occupation. Seeing the settlement of Alfe Menashe and the town of Kfar Saba showed the extent of the inequality and the refusal of some to see what is right in front of their eyes.
