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CounterPunch
August
26, 2002
What Is Israel Hiding?
by Joshua Ruebner and
Khalid Turaani
With extremism gaining adherents in both communities,
the notion that Muslims and Jews can work together for a similar
vision of peace between Palestinians and Israelis may surprise
many. The idea certainly piqued the interest of U.S. Congressional
staff members who were invited to participate in the first joint
American Jewish-Muslim staff delegation to Israel and the Occupied
Palestinian Territories, sponsored by American Muslims for Jerusalem
(AMJ) and Jews for Peace in Palestine and Israel (JPPI).
The bi-partisan delegation intended to
spend six days traveling throughout Israel and the Occupied Palestinian
Territories, meeting with Israeli and Palestinian peace activists,
American and international humanitarian organizations, and U.S.
government officials. Staffers acknowledged this as a unique
opportunity to get a balanced view of the situation on the ground.
This, they said, could only help in the development of a constructive
American policy toward the region and peacemaking efforts there.
Perhaps more surprising than the group's
sponsorship was the fact that Israel's Interior Ministry denied
entry to the delegation, which attempted to enter the Israeli-occupied
West Bank from Jordan via the Allenby Bridge on August 8. After
five hours and without explanation, Israeli security personnel
informed the delegation that the Ministry of Interior had refused
entry to the six Congressional staffers and the two AMJ staff
members. While Israeli authorities held the passports of all
nine members of the delegation, an Israeli policeman urged the
group to get their passports and leave, saying he hoped the situation
would not lead to "blows."
Since April, Israel has turned away or
expelled hundreds of humanitarian relief workers, peace delegations,
and journalists, not to mention the U.S.-sanctioned UN fact-finding
mission established to investigate the Israeli invasion of Jenin.
An official staff delegation from the U.S. Congress, however,
is a new addition to Israel's list of undesirables.
Six Members of Congress -- the institution
that appropriates to Israel $3 billion of U.S. taxpayer money
every year--sent their staffers on this delegation to help inform
their positions on this critical issue. Instead, they were sent
on their way with "denied entry" scrawled in red in
their American passports. Only after three days of high level
intervention from the U.S. State Department and Embassy in Tel
Aviv were the staffers finally allowed entry--though without
their American Muslim hosts. Israel managed to compress what
was to have been a six-day fact-finding mission into little more
than two days. Such strange behavior on the part of America's
purported ally in the region should prompt members of Congress
to ask: what is Israel trying to hide?
Despite the abridged schedule of the
delegation, once on the ground, it became obvious what Israel
was attempting to hide: an onslaught against the Palestinian
people designed to subjugate them to Israel's indefinite military
occupation. In the West Bank, the juxtaposition of destruction
and construction was terrifyingly staggering. On dozens of hilltops,
there was evidence of brand new settlements being established
in defiance of U.S. outcries to halt this illegal practice. Israeli
bulldozers worked feverishly to clear land and build new settler-only
bypass roads to facilitate the movement of settlers while further
choking off already constricted Palestinian bantustans. The Israeli
checkpoints leading in to Ramallah and Bethlehem have been, literally,
concretized, perhaps permanently severing these cities from Palestinian
East Jerusalem. At the same time, according to figures cited
by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID),! Israel
has completely destroyed at least 1,600 Palestinian homes since
September 2000, leaving many thousands homeless.
Israel's desperate attempt to entrench
its military occupation, which everyone agrees must come to an
end in order for there to be a just peace, has wreaked incalculable
damage to Palestinian infrastructure and society. USAID reports
skyrocketing malnutrition among Palestinian children and 70%
of Palestinians living below the poverty line. In the Aida refugee
camp, on the outskirts of Bethlehem, the delegation saw the meager
belongings of one refugee utterly ransacked and his house partially
destroyed by Israeli troops who reoccupied the area during a
spring invasion. Endless coils of barbed wire, which have proliferated
at nearly every turn, imprison Palestinians in their own homeland.
In Hebron, Hebrew graffiti repeatedly urges the ethnic cleansing
of the West Bank with such vile slogans as "Death to the
Arabs" and "No Arabs, No Attacks." No wonder that
Israel attempted to keep this delegation out.
Members of Congress would be wise to
visit the Palestinian Occupied Territories to see this for themselves.
At the very least, they should listen to what Palestinians told
the delegation about their feelings toward the United States.
Although the tone varied, the message was the same: the United
States' unconditional military and diplomatic support for Israel's
occupation and its brutal policies are embittering Palestinians
toward the U.S. government. If our government is truly interested
in improving its image worldwide, then it must change substantively
those policies which are so offensive to those seeking peace
and justice.
Joshua Ruebner
is co-founder of Jews for Peace
in Palestine and Israel. Khalid Turaani is executive
director of American Muslims
for Jerusalem. Both groups are based in Washington, DC.
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