Israel/Palestine; Violence, the State, and Democracy for Some

So, let's run through what's caught my eye recently on Israel/Palestine, some news clips & commentary, a great radio show this morning here in the bay, and a few article from EI that are not to be missed.

First, an old picture of mine;

What is this you ask? Who is this you ask?

This is a picture of me, dancing at a Christmas party in East Jerusalem, December 25th 2005, with none other than Mordechai Vanunu, a true hero who should receive multiple Nobel prizes asap! This man, after his 18 year imprisonment, still lives in the prison which is Israel, and is now being sent back to actual prison, simply because the state will not end its vendetta against him; just think of the US vs John Lennon, just on steroids and crack;

Vanunu to return to prison for violating the terms of his parole
By Nir Hasson, Haaretz Correspondent

The Jerusalem Magistrate's Court has sentenced nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu to six months in jail for violating the terms of his parole.

Vanunu, a former technician at Israel's nuclear plant near the southern town of Dimona, spent 18 years in prison for giving details of the country's atomic program to British newspaper "Sunday Times" in 1986.
According to the verdict, "The order stemmed from the fact that the accused had hoarded in his memory classified information that has not been released, and the release of which could harm the security interests of Israel."

After the verdict was announced, Vanunu said that his conviction proves that Israel is still ruled, in effect, by the British mandate, because the law under which he was convicted is from that era. "Maybe I need to turn to the queen or to Tony Blair in order to grant me justice," he said.

I remember being at the party, sitting down and thinking, "how could he even have a 'good time' and go to a party after what he had gone through? How does one survive such dislocation, isolation and cruelty? Then, I look up, and what is he doing, but dancing and having a good time, and smiling at everyone in the room!

So, I said, what the heck, I'll dance with him!

I wish him all the strength in the world; the Shabak has not broken him yet, but it is clear that they will keep trying.

And, so onto the next news item, here's just a heartwarmer;

30,000 attend 'We are all Sderot' solidarity concert in Tel Aviv
By Yigal Hai, Haaretz Editorial

Some 30,000 people including about 5,000 Negev residents attended the "We are all Sderot" solidarity concert at Rabin Square in Tel Aviv Monday night, to show support for the residents of Sderot and other communities bordering the Gaza Strip, who live under the constant threat of Qassam rocket fire from the Gaza Strip.

"We are with you," said Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai. "Qassams in Sderot are our problem too. We call for priorities to be changed, so that the residents of the Gaza envelope and Sderot will live like in Tel Aviv."

"The goal of the event is to let the residents of Sderot and the other communities bordering Gaza feel that they are not alone," said one of the event's organizers.

Now, please do not get me wrong; I have no ill will towards the people of Sderot or any other Israeli town or city; I wish no one to suffer, Israeli or Palestinian and I gain no joy when one does. But as someone that is a part of a Solidarity movement, I do have a problem with this event. Just look at the intent, that the people of Sderot should live just live the 'safe' citizens of Tel Aviv. I can imagine that the Euro-American settlers felt much the same way on the constantly expanding borders of the American frontier, vulnerable to attacks from the 'barbaric' violence of the natives, which of course, they were just defending themselves from, of course. But that is the way of the colonial settler society; the central, thoroughly ethnically cleansed homeland is much less risky than the rough borders of such activity, whether we are talking about Sderot and Tel Aviv or Little Bighorn and New York City. The problem in Israel/Palestine, of course, is that the hegemonic center and the frontier are right next to each other, and the monopoly of violence by the occupier/colonizer is not absolute like in the days of old (the solution- build a wall, lots of walls!).

And let's also not forget that this is not new; Sderot was built on/next to the ruins of the ethnically cleansed Palestinian village of Najd, and has, like many areas bordering Gaza and the OPT, has felt its share of violence from the conflict. But this is not surprising, just read the words of Moshe Dayan by the Gates of Gaza, who was a very logical Zionist of the old socialist-secular variety, but a colonizer like the rest;

Moshe Dayan stated in an oration at the funeral of an Israeli farmer killed by a Palestinian Arab in April 1956:

". . . Let us not today fling accusation at the murderers. What cause have we to complain about their fierce hatred to us? For eight years now, they sit in their refugee camps in Gaza, and before their eyes we turn into our homestead the land and villages in which they and their forefathers have lived.

We should demand his blood not from the [Palestinian] Arabs of Gaza but from ourselves. . . . Let us make our reckoning today. We are a generation of settlers, and without the steel helmet and gun barrel, we shall not be able to plant a tree or build a house. . . . Let us not be afraid to see the hatred that accompanies and consumes the lives of hundreds of thousands of [Palestinian] Arabs who sit all around us and wait for the moment when their hands will be able to reach our blood." (Iron Wall, p. 101)

Regarding the article, another reason it gives me the shivers is the idea that Israelis are basically banding together, focusing on their pain, while those locked up in open-air prisons are simply unseen, unknown, and not to be cared about. I'm sure there are Palestinians who have similar feelings about Israelis, but in this power disparity, it is the fate of the occupied that is up for grabs, and more and more are getting truly frightened as to where it is heading; what crimes lie beyond just ethnic cleansing?

And again with information on the Free Gaza campaign, go here;

Mission Statement

We want to break the siege of Gaza. We want to raise international awareness about the prison-like closure of the Gaza Strip and pressure the international community to review its sanctions policy and end its support for continued Israeli occupation. We want to uphold Palestine's right to welcome internationals as visitors, human rights observers, humanitarian aid workers, journalists, or otherwise.
Who are we?

We are these human rights observers, aid workers, and journalists. We have years of experience volunteering in Gaza and the West Bank at the invitation of Palestinians. But now, because of the increasing stranglehold of Israel's illegal occupation of Palestine, many of us find it almost impossible to enter Gaza, and an increasing number have been refused entry to Israel and the West Bank as well. Despite the great need for our work, the Israeli Government will not allow us in to do it.

We are of all ages and backgrounds. Back home, we are teachers, medics, musicians, secretaries, parents, grandparents, lawyers, students, activists, actors, playwrites, politicians, singer-songwriters, web
designers, international training consultants, and even a former Hollywood film industry worker and an aviator. We are South African, Australian, American, English, Israeli, Palestinian, and more.
What are we going to do?

We've tried to enter Palestine by land. We've tried to arrive by air. Now we're getting serious. We're taking a ship.

Now, here is the linkto a great radio show that was on this morning about Gaza and the Palestinians, it had Eyad El-Sarraj from Gaza and Beshara Doumani from Berkeley, and it was great & can be downloaded as a podcast;

Gaza and the Palestinian State

What led to the latest armed confrontation between the Palestinian factions in Gaza? On the next Your Call, we'll discuss the most recent clashes between the rival Palestinian forces of Hamas and Fatah during which,110 people were killed and more than 500 were injured. With Hamas consolidating it's power in Gaza and Fatah's Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, how is Gaza faring under Hamas? And what role does the U.S. play in the current crisis? It's Your Call with Rose Aguilar and you.

07.09.07 Gaza and the Palestinian State

Academic Freedom After September 11 by Beshara Doumani

Gaza Community Mental Health Program

Dr. Eyad El-Sarraj, PalestineChronicle: Psychosocial Causes for Palestinian Factional War

Miftah: Infighting Between Fatah and Hamas in the Gaza Strip: Timeline

Haaretz Newspaper: Jordan's king rejects confederation with Palestinians

Leila El Haddad: Raising Yousuf, Unplugged: Diary of a Palestinian Mother

The Alternative Information Center, Gush Shalom: Thousands of Palestinians Stuck Under Appalling Conditions at Rafah

And let's finish up with two more articles; here's a snippet from an article, about a fellow activist I met some months ago that helped foundPicture Balata, but has been denied entry to Israel/Palestine;

A meaningless stamp
Matthew Cassel writing from Amman, Jordan, The Electronic Intifada, 9 July 2007

The struggle for justice for Palestinians is not confined to the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. It lies in the refugee camps like Beqa'a, Yarmouk, Ein el-Helwe and all the others. And it lies outside in Europe and the US. It's our countries that allow this to go on and it's in those countries where we must concentrate our efforts. We have unlimited resources at our fingertips to get the word out and expose the injustice. Now more than ever we must do everything we can to get that information out and force our governments to recognize the rights of Palestinians.

That Israeli agent who questioned me as he tore apart my belongings can smile all he wants to. But he's insecure because deep down he knows he's losing. He knows his injustice cannot last forever and that's what scares him the most.

And last but not least, a very important article from EI, one that makes clear that the punishment that Vanunu is the target of is not reserved just for Palestinians or anti-nuclear activists; it is a part of the very society in Israel, which punishes those that deviate in any way that is perceived as threatening.

The Israeli police state
Avigail Abarbanel, The Electronic Intifada, 9 July 2007

On Friday, 8 June 2007, my husband Ian flew to Israel. He is in fact on his way to an IT conference in Vienna, but we thought that it would be nice for him to make a short three-day detour to Tel-Aviv to visit my brother and his family and in particular meet my seven and five year old nieces for the first time.

At Ben-Gurion airport Ian's Australian passport was confiscated with no explanation. He was taken to a small interrogation room and had to endure an intimidating questioning about non-existent Saudi and Lebanese visas in his passport. He was interrogated by a tough-looking uniformed female police officer while a non-uniformed agent watched. The officer asked him why he had Saudi and Lebanese visas. When he responded that this could not be his passport because he does not have such visas, she proceeded to ask him for the names of his father and grandfather. Despite the fact that Ian answered the question the first time, she repeated it three more times. By that stage Ian realized that they were trying to intimidate him and although he did feel some fear, he pointed out that she asked the same question several times and that he had already answered it. After about 25 minutes of this, Ian was finally released with no explanation and a feeble apology about delaying him.

As a former Israeli citizen with military training I am familiar with the psychological tactics used by the Israeli Border Patrol (MAGAV) and by the military. They deliberately try to intimidate their victim and keep him (or her) in a state of uncertainty -- about what is going on, what it's all about, where his papers are. They know that foreign nationals would feel profoundly insecure without their passports and that uncertainty would lead to fear and stress in most people. They also know that most people's confidence would falter under such conditions and if there is anything to divulge, it is more likely come out then. Israeli officers are trained to watch body language, micro-expressions, perspiration, anything. The questions themselves are often just a pretext to induce stress so that they can watch their victim carefully to see if he has any secrets. They had Ian's passport. They knew well that there were no such visas in it. (And you have to wonder: what if there were? What would have happened to him then? Australian citizens are free to visit any country they wish. But it appears that in Israel having the "wrong" visas in your passport turns you into a suspect. Of course we will never know whether the story about the visas was the real reason for his short detention.)

Israel and its apologists repeatedly portray Israel as "the only democracy in the Middle East," a uniquely democratic regime in a non-democratic region. Somehow this is supposed to make us feel more sympathetic and justify our support of it. But Israeli democracy is a myth.

In my 27 years there I belonged to the Israeli mainstream. I was Jewish, Israeli-born and secular. I was an ordinary citizen who completed her military service, the quintessential Israeli, not involved in politics or activism of any kind. I minded my own business, worried about money, work, study, my own little life. I wasn't a "trouble-maker" by any stretch of the imagination. Anyone who met me back then, would have assumed that I agreed with the prevailing Israeli ideology. And frankly, they would have been right.

Although Israeli daily life could be frustrating, particularly dealing with the bureaucracy, we felt safe in the knowledge that annoying as they might be, our authorities would never turn against us. In fact, the thought wouldn't even occur to us. Because I was a member of this comfortable center of Israeli society, I was also ignorant of what Israel was capable of, and of what it could mean to not belong.

My first ever taste of this as yet unfamiliar "status" came around 17 years ago, when my ex-husband (also an Israeli) and I were planning to migrate to Australia, and were in the last stages of receiving our permanent residency. My ex, an engineer and a Captain in the army about to finish his contract, was told suddenly one afternoon, without explanation that he was to report to a certain location to have a little "chat" with someone from the Military Police.

Our plans to leave Israel were no secret. Leaving Israel is not a crime, and Australia was not on the list of countries that Israeli officers involved in secret military projects were prohibited from visiting or living in after the end of their service (yes, such a list exists). In any case, there was no reason for my ex-husband to suspect that this "chat" had anything to do with our plans.

He was taken to a small room and instructed to sit on a chair in the middle of the room. He was circled by a female Military Police sergeant who began by saying, "We found out that you are planning to migrate to Australia," to which he replied "So? It's not a secret." She responded aggressively that he was to shut up, and that she was asking the questions. She then proceeded to ask "Why are you leaving?" and, "Does your wife know that you are planning to leave?" Apparently the military found out about our plans from the police, while we were in the process of obtaining clearance for Australian Immigration. They would have known that both of us were involved. The questions were clearly not intended to be engaged with at face value. Initially, my ex started to respond to the point, but when he realized the absurdity of the situation he became annoyed. He then told the sergeant that he did not see the point of the conversation and unless she was accusing him of something, he was leaving. When she responded aggressively again, he stood up, reminded her that he was a Captain and she a Sergeant, and left the room.

In the absence of any information about this incident, we concluded that this was an attempt to intimidate us out of leaving Israel. Of course it relied entirely on psychology because the military had neither reason nor a legal way of stopping us.

Up until the army found out that we were leaving, my husband as a career officer and myself as the "wife of," were treated with great respect in Israeli society and in the military. We didn't just belong, we had an honored place. The choice of a female sergeant was meant to humiliate him (I mean no offense to females but this is the culture in the Israeli military). Whoever dreamed up this intimidation attempt wanted to show my ex that his rank and status meant little if he was choosing the "wrong" path. We were angry but mostly shocked that he could be treated like this just because we wanted to leave Israel. It's one thing to encounter the disapproval of friends and relatives in ordinary conversations. It's quite another to be the subject of a menacing questioning by the MP. Our decision to leave apparently placed us in a new position in society, outside that comfortable mainstream. When we finally left at the end of '91 we did so with a bitter taste in our mouths having seen a glimpse of an Israel we didn't know.

Ask any Palestinian and they will tell you much worse stories -- frankly, there is no comparison. Palestinians cannot help but be seen as outsiders, whether they are citizens of Israel or whether they are refugees in the Occupied Territories, whether they are children or adults, male or female. All Palestinians live under constant military and police surveillance. They experience nothing of the mythical Israeli democracy. "Israeli democracy" is something reserved only for the privileged and mostly ignorant elite, of which I was also a member, until I decided to leave. Palestinian citizens of Israel live under an arbitrary and brutal police state. Their dealings with Israeli bureaucracy are not just frustrating but can be outright dangerous.

The Palestinians in the Occupied Territories live under a Pinochet-like regime. They can and do disappear in the middle of the night. They are blindfolded, cuffed, beaten, humiliated, taken to unknown locations with no information given to them or their families, tortured physically and psychologically and incarcerated indefinitely, often without charges and regardless of whether they are guilty of anything. It is arbitrary and it can happen to anyone. This is a far worse version of the two incidents I described above but the basic principles are the same.

In a regime like that you don't have to actually do anything wrong to receive this treatment. This is because it is not only designed to catch people who break the law, it is designed to be a kind of a warning, a hinted threat. It's there to flaunt state power, show people how small and weak they are compared with the mighty state, and offer a taste of what would happen to them if they even think to go against it. In the case of the Palestinians such tactics are also designed to make daily life unbearable in order to break their spirit and intimidate them into leaving. After all, what Israel really wants is all the land but without the people, something that so many in the West still refuse to recognize.

Israel is not a nice country. It is a powerful police state founded on pathological paranoia with only a veneer of civility, carefully crafted and maintained for the consumption of those who still believe in the myth of Israeli democracy. Mainstream Israelis live in a fictional bubble that separates them from reality. If there is a democracy there, only this select group enjoys it -- just like the conformist white population in old South Africa. Supporting Israel now is the same as claiming that South Africa under apartheid was an acceptable democracy. It also means abandoning the Palestinians, just like the world abandoned black South Africans (and white dissidents) for 45 long years.

Avigail Abarbanel is a former Israeli and a local psychotherapist/counsellor.