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CounterPunch
November
5, 2002
All Because
of One Small Olive
by URI AVNERY
Why has the Sharon-Ben-Eliezer-Peres government
collapsed? Because of a small olive.
It started like a children's tale: Once
upon a time there was a small olive in a Palestinian village.
It grew and ripened on a branch of an old tree in a grove on
the top of a hill. "Pick me! I want to give my oil!"
the little olive pleaded.
But it went on ripening, and the pickers
did not come. They could not reach it, because the settlers had
set up two mobile homes on the hill, and the whole area became
a "security region" of this outpost. When the owners
of the grove approached, the settlers cursed them, beat them
up and started shooting. This happened at dozens of locations
all over the West Bank.
The villagers called the IDF, which now
controls all the Palestinian territories. But the army did not
come to protect them. Many of the army officers are themselves
settlers. The army considers that its job is to  defend the settlers, and does not like
the idea of confronting them. When the army did interfere, it
was to drive the villagers out of their groves near the outposts.
In their plight, the villagers called
on the Israeli peace organizations. They found them willing.
The Israeli "peace camp" consists
of two parts. One, centered around "Peace Now," is
connected with the Labor party, which was a pillar of the government.
The party chief served as Minister of Defense and was, therefore,
responsible for all the iniquities committed in the Palestinian
territories.
The other part of the peace camp consists
of many radical groups, each active in its chosen sector. "Gush
Shalom" is a political and ideological center. "Taayush,"
an Arab-Jewish Israeli group, is aiding the besieged Palestinian
population. "B'Tselem" collects and publishes data,
as does the "Alternative Information Center." "Physicians
for Human Rights" does a wonderful job in the medical field,
while the Women's Coalition for Peace and Bat-Shalom combine
human rights activities with a feminist agenda. "The Committee
against House Demolition" initiates the rebuilding of homes
destroyed by the army, and "Rabbis for Human Rights"
is acting on behalf of the (unfortunately, tiny) religious community
that does not follow the fanatical nationalist banner. "Machsom
Watch" reports and tries to prevent abuses at the checkpoints.
"Yesh Gvul" helps soldiers who refuse to serve in the
occupied territories. "New Profile" is active in the
same area. The list is long. Activists of different groups frequently
cooperate, and many belong to more than one.
The activists of these organizations
volunteered to help the villagers. They went out to pick olives
and to defend the villagers as a "human shield." They
were joined by European peace activists, who come in shifts to
help the occupied Palestinian population. On some days there
were dozens of Israeli and international activists in the groves,
on Saturdays there were hundreds. They were dispersed in different
villages, went up the hills and were attacked by the settlers.
In dozens of incidents, the settlers started shooting into the
air and at the ground around the olive pickers.
During long weeks, the public did not
hear anything about these events. There is a conspiracy of silence
in the media concerning the very existence of a radical peace
camp. "Peace Now" is considered somehow as belonging
to the national consensus, and therefore its actions are (scantily)
reported. The actions of the more principled and energetic forces
("The Deep Left" in the words of former Prime Minister
Ehud Barak, who abhors them) were not reported at all, unless
there was bloodshed.
But slowly, reports about the War of
the Olives began to infiltrate the media: about the settlers
driving the Palestinians away and robbing them of the olives
they had picked; about settlers who picked the olives in the
groves themselves after driving the owners away; about settlers
setting fire to groves; about the former Chief Rabbi, who announced
that Jews are justified in taking away the fruits for which the
Arab villagers had toiled, because God has given the fruit of
the Land to the Jews.
The conspiracy of silence was finally
broken when a group of famous writers organized a token olive
picking. The media, which had ignored the devoted work of the
hundreds of anonymous activists, were happy to join celebrities
like Amos Oz, A.B. Yehoshua, David Grossman and Me'ir Shalev.
The olive picking became part of the consensus.
The settlers have never been popular
with great parts of the public. The anger grew when it became
known that the poor in Israel were deprived of large sums of
money in order to fatten the settlements. The anger was mixed
with anxiety for the soldiers, who were frequently beaten by
the settlers, while risking their lives to protect remote, half-empty
settlements. The stories about the cruel harassment of defenseless
olive pickers were just too much. They evoked repulsion and loathing
even in the Silent Majority.
This had an indirect impact on Binyamin
Ben-Eliezer, too. He noticed the changing public mood and decided
that it is now in his and the party's interest to leave the government.
He was feverishly looking for a pretext. Public opinion polls
indicated that the settlers are now the most unpopular group
in the country. He decided, therefore, to break up the government
on the point. He suddenly demanded that the government take away
money from the settlements and give it to the pensioners.
This was only a pretext, but it shows
that a great part of the public is fed up with the settlements.
At long last, the settlements have become the central object
of controversy. While Ariel Sharon is trying to set up a government
based on the settlers and their allies on the extreme right,
the Labor Party, now in opposition, will be compelled to present
an anti-settlements program. Thus, the slogan of a small, "marginal"
minority is becoming the program of a large camp.
This is an example of the working of
the "small wheel" doctrine formulated by us decades
ago: A small wheel with a strong independent drive turns a bigger
wheel, which turns an even bigger wheel, and so on, until the
whole big machine starts operating. That's how a small political
group, with an independent and determined agenda, can drive decisive
political processes when the timing is right.
We still have a long way to go. The danger
of fascism is still hovering over this country. However, it has
now been proven that things can be moved in the opposite direction.
Perhaps the small olive on the hill is
mightier than a one-ton bomb.
Uri Avnery
has closely followed the career of Sharon for four decades. Over
the years, he has written three extensive biographical essays
about him, two (1973, 1981) with his cooperation. Avnery is featured
in the new book, The
Other Israel: Voices of Refusal and Dissent.
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