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Recent
Stories
June
20, 2003
Gary
Leupp
Bush on "Revisionist Historians"
June
19, 2003
Elaine
Cassel
Bush Plays the Racial Profiling Card:
It's a Smokescreen
Brian
Cloughley
Punch-and-Judy in the West Wing:
The Powell-Rice Show
David Lindorff
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Mark
Jacobs
A Serious Conversation: a Former Foreign Service Officer on Diplomacy
in the Age of Bush
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Castro
Bloodbath in Colombia: The Army and the Death Squads
Saul
Landau
Lying, Flag Waving and Redefining
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Steve
Perry
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June
18, 2003
Wendell
Berry
Small Destructions Add Up
Elaine
Cassel
Dark Star Chambers: Secret Trials,
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Col.
Daniel Smith
Iraq's WMDs: Integrity, Ethics and
Intelligence
Chris
Fagen
Ignoring the World's Bloodiest War
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Bush's Low Intensity War on Labor
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Hamod
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M.
Shahid Alam
Illuminating Tom Friedman
Jon
Brown
Greens & Dems: a Reply to Publius
Steve
Perry
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June
17, 2003
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Elaine
Cassel
Scalia, the Rumsfeld of the Supremes
Roger Burbach
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Steve
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June
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June
21, 2003
The Unholy Alliance
in the Terrorities
Settlers,
Military and Police
By AVIA PASTERNAK
Minutes after the Ta'ayush activists arrived at
the wheat field together with the Palestinian villagers, a group
of settlers, lead by the Rabbi of 'Maon' settlement, began running
down the hill towards them. The settlers shouted at the harvesters,
threatening them and demanding that they leave the field. Some
of them had guns.
At that point the soldiers intervened.
Instead of arresting the rioters, they stopped the harvest, denying
the Palestinians access to their land. As is usually the case
in South Hebron, they protected the violent law-breakers the
Jewish settlers.
It all began several hours earlier. Saturday
morning, not long after dawn, Ta'ayush activists from all over
Israel left their homes in order to join the Palestinians from
Twaneh, a small village located in South Hebron. We wanted to
harvest a wheat field that is located near the Jewish settlement
Maon.
Saturday marked the end of a gory week
the terrorist bombing in the center of Jerusalem, two targeted
assassinations in Gaza, and a long list of innocent Palestinian
and Israeli victims. Especially at a time like this, it was important
for us to demonstrate our solidarity with our Palestinian friends
and to protest against the endless bloodshed. With black flags
on every vehicle, we drove towards Twaneh.
Approximately one kilometer past the
green line soldiers and the border police blocked our way with
an improvised roadblock. They had been waiting for our arrival.
The commander declared the place a closed
military zone and told us to turn around and leave immediately.
We asked him to show us the legal order stating that this was
indeed a closed military zone, yet he had no such order at hand.
What was worse, while the soldiers at the roadblock did not allow
Ta'ayush activists to enter the region with their cars, they
enabled settlers' cars to pass. South Hebron is closed only for
peace activists.
Following repeated demands on our part
to see the order, the commander announced that the 'Lavi' regiment
commander, Lieutenant-Colonel Yehuda, would arrive shortly to
show us the order. The Lavi is a regiment of conscript soldiers
that is currently assigned to the area (and consists mostly of
soldiers who are from Jewish settlements).
After waiting about half and hour we
decided that while we were being blocked settler cars would not
pass. We sat on the road thus blocking all cars from passing
through. At this point the roadblock commander allowed four activists
to drive to the next checkpoint in order to talk to the regiment
commander.
The regiment commander had a written
order declaring the area a closed military zone, signed by the
brigade commander, dating from the 14th of June, 8:00 AM, until
the 15th of June. Clearly, the order was issued in 'honor' of
our visit.
The commander also showed us other orders
pertaining to different areas in South Hebron. All access roads
had been blocked in order to 'prevent a violent collision between
Ta'ayush activists and settlers,' as he put it. Although Ta'ayush
activists clarified that they were interested only in harvesting
the land together with the Palestinians, and that they would
avoid on their part any contact with settlers, we were still
treated as a threatening force.
After lengthy negotiations, the regiment
commander permitted two Ta'ayush cars to pass through. He announced
that there was no restriction on harvesting the field and even
promised that his soldiers would secure the harvesters. Despite
the fact that 150 activists had hoped to reach the village, meet
the people, and help with the harvest, we decided to compromise
hoping that the Palestinians would finally have an opportunity
to harvest their field. They had been waiting a month and a half
and in a few weeks it would be too late. Two vehicles with Ta'ayush
activists as well as authors David Grossman and Meir Shalev who
had joined the convoy left for Twaneh. The rest of the cars drove
to Jimba, a Palestinian cave dwellers community located further
south. Settlers who reside in the outposts nearby also constantly
harass the Jimba residents blocking their access to their water
wells and fields.
Meanwhile, at Twaneh our Palestinian
friends greeted the activists. The 'Ta'ayush Tent' where we gather
every week was knocked down by soldiers from the Lavi regiment
a week earlier during a violent attack on the village.
The villagers told the activists that
they had been preparing for the harvest since early that morning,
and that the soldiers together with the supervisor from the Civil
Administration had limited the harvest to those patches of land
furthest away from 'Maon' settlement. This order contradicted
the promise made earlier by the regiment commander.
Within minutes after the Palestinians
and activists began the harvest, a group of settlers came running
down from Maon, led by the Rabbi of the settlement. They shouted
at the activists and Palestinians, threatening them and demanding
that they leave the field immediately. The soldiers, in turn,
demanded that Ta'ayush activists leave the field; instead of
arresting the rioters, they stopped the harvest.
Once again the violent settlers won the
day. Once again the unholy alliance between the settlers, military,
police and civil administration was exposed. This alliance is
indeed the backbone of the cruel occupation.
Despite the frustration and disappointment,
we plan to go back to South Hebron this coming Saturday. We plan
to harvest the field. We will not succumb.
Avia Pasternak
is a graduate student at Hebrew University and can be reached
at aviap@mscc.huji.ac.il
Today's Features
Elaine
Cassel
Bush Plays the Racial Profiling Card:
It's a Smokescreen
Brian
Cloughley
Punch-and-Judy in the West Wing:
The Powell-Rice Show
David Lindorff
What's Next?
Mark
Jacobs
A Serious Conversation: a Former Foreign Service Officer on Diplomacy
in the Age of Bush
Alfredo
Castro
Bloodbath in Colombia: The Army and the Death Squads
Saul
Landau
Lying, Flag Waving and Redefining
Conservative Values
Steve
Perry
Bush's Wars
Web Log, 6/19
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