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CounterPunch
February
26, 2003
The Face of Re-Occupation
Penny
Rosenwasser: a Jewish Voice for Peace
by FRAN QUIGLEY
Penny Rosenwasser is a Jewish American peace activist
who refuses to accept a single label of being either pro-Israel
or pro-Palestine. "For me, it's about supporting the survival
of both peoples," she says. "There's no contradiction
there." Rosenwasser, affiliated with A Jewish Voice for
Peace and the Middle East Children's Alliance, has lead four
women's peace delegations to Palestine and Israel. Rosenwasser
has been travelling in the U.S. giving presentations on "The
Face of Re-Occupation."
Quigley: When you say you are a supporter
of both Israel and Palestine, does that confuse people?
Rosenwasser: It does sometimes, and I
think it speaks to the dualism that we are taught in this country.
We see it in the way Bush articulates foreign policy: "You're
either with us or against us." But Palestinian lives can
be as valuable as Israeli lives, and it doesn't take anything
away from Israelis to say that Palestinians are also human beings.
For me, it's about supporting the survival of both peoples. There's
no contradiction there.
As a Jew, I very strongly support the
survival of Jewish people. We've been through a lot: there's
been so much persecution over thousands of years, including sixty
years ago when a third of our people were annihilated. I feel
the grief around suicide bombings just as much as I hold my grief
around what's been going on in Palestinian lives. But it's not
a contradiction for me as a human being, as a woman and as a
Jew, to also support Palestinian survival.
Quigley: Is there a real chance for peace?
Rosenwasser: There are leaders on both
sides who could negotiate a just peace right now. Every poll
that comes out says two-thirds of Israelis support evacuating
most of the settlements, and support a Palestinian state. The
same amount of Palestinians support an end to violence and a
start of negotiations for a sovereign Palestinian state.
As to the terms of a just peace, I follow
the leadership of the Israeli peace movement. The main thing
is ending the occupation, which means retreating to the 1967
borders, so that the Palestinians can again control the West
Bank and Gaza. It means sharing Jerusalem, meaning that every
group, Christian, Jewish and Muslim, would have access to their
holy site. There must be evacuation of the settlements on Palestinian
land and a negotiation that is mutually agreeable on the right
of return (of Palestinian refugees). It will be tricky, but both
sides so much want a just peace, I definitely think it is possible.
Quigley: What is the U.S. role in resolving
the conflict?
Rosenwasser: The U.S. has been such an
ally for Israel in terms of offering aid and really giving (Prime
Minister Ariel) Sharon the green light for everything he is doing.
If the U.S. took a strong stand and said that we are going to
condition military aid on ending occupation and removing the
settlements, it would happen.
The Palestinians are asking for a contiguous
state, a sovereign state, a state that allows them to build some
sort of economy. The U.S. has complete power to pressure for
that to happen.
As U.S. taxpayers, we really need to
be aware of where that $3 billion we give in aid to Israel every
year is going. Out of that $3 billion, 75% is required to go
to American weapons manufacturers who make the F-16 planes, who
make the bullets, who make the Apache helicopters. When doctors
in Palestine operate on children who have been shot and take
the bullets out of their bodies, the bullets say "Made in
the U.S.A." That's what our tax money is going for.
Quigley: Sometimes we hear the allegation
that the Palestinians were offered 95% of what they were asking
for in negotiations with then-Prime Minister Ehud Barak and President
Clinton, but Arafat refused it.
Rosenwasser: That is a lie. It's the
work of the Israeli propaganda machine. The closest we came to
peace was in Taba, Egypt (in January 2001) when Clinton was trying
desperately to pull off an agreement at the last minute. Israel
was still going to keep bypass roads, huge highways that cut
right through Palestinian villages, and there was not a plan
to dismantle lots of the settlements. It would be like an enemy
army having villages and towns right through the middle of Indianapolis,
and you couldn't go across town to visit your family. That's
the kind of state that would have been set up.
Quigley: How strong is the Israeli peace
movement?
Rosenwasser: Last May, there were 100,000
Israelis in the streets in a peace rally calling for an end to
the occupation. There are Israeli groups that are rebuilding
Palestinian homes that the Israeli army has destroyed. There
are Israeli groups bringing humanitarian aid past the tanks and
guns and into Palestinian villages. One of the big movements
is the "refuseniks," over 500 Israeli soldiers who
have signed a statement that they will no longer serve in an
occupation army that is oppressing Palestinians.
Women are the heart of the Israeli peace
movement. One of their slogans is "We refuse to be enemies,"
and they build alliances with Palestinian women. My friend Terry
Greenblat, the leader of an Israeli peace group called Bat Shalom,
and her Palestinian counterpart Maha Abu-Dayyeh Shamas spoke
before the UN Security Council last May, calling for the creation
of a women's peace commission. We believe that women understand
peacemaking in a particular way. I think it is a real cause of
hope that together they are building this joint women's movement.
Quigley: What is your presentation on
"The Face of Reoccupation" about?
Rosenwasser: I'm trying to humanize the
situation, just trying to show more of what's really happening.
During my first trip in 1989, I was so moved by the humanity
of the Palestinian people because it was in such contradiction
to what I heard from the media of them as the "other,"
the enemy, terrorists. I just feel this responsibility as a Jew
to humanize Palestinian people as my cousins, and help American
people see them as human beings just like folks down the block.
I hope that the humanizing effect happens
when you see the slide of a 13-year- old West Bank boy named
Hassan in a wheelchair. I asked him what happened to him and
he said, "I was playing outside my village and I saw some
soldiers far in the distance. The next thing I knew, 5 bullets
were in my body." One of the bullets severed his spinal
cord and he will never walk again.
I want to emphasize that I am in no way
wanting to minimize the oppression that has happened to Jewish
people over thousands of years. There is a reason Jewish people
are afraid, there is a reason we want security. We've been terrorized
and terrified, and that has been passed down through our families.
And the Palestinian people are being terrorized right now by
the Israeli army, and there is a reason they want security, too.
Both narratives are legitimate. Accepting
one does not mean we have to deny the other, it just means we
have to open our hearts bigger and allow room for all of these
stories. I've met a lot of Israelis and Palestinians who have
these open hearts and can hold all of that. And I think Americans
can, too.
Fran Quigley
writes for the Indianapolis alternative paper, Nuvo. He can be
reached at: fquigley@nuvo.net
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