http://www.thetruthherzl.com/
Monday, June 9, 2008
Walk the Green Line
<http://www.thetruthherzl.com/2008/06/walk-green-line.html>
At the end of May I joined a tour of border communities on either side
of the Green Line, which divides Israel from the West Bank. From 1948 to
1967, the West Bank belonged to Jordan, with a different economy, road
system and water infrastructure from Israel. Since 1967, however, all
these things have become loosely integrated with Israel as Jewish
settlements spread out and as the Palestinians became one of Israel's
biggest markets.
The tour, Walk the Green Line <http://walkthegreenline.org/> , was run
by the Israel/Palestine Center for Research and Information, or IPCRI
<http://ipcri.org> , a joint Israeli-Palestinian think tank. I jumped at
the rare chance to go to places like Bethlehem and East Jerusalem. I was
also eager to meet Gershon Baskin, one of IPCRI's two co-directors.
Baskin grew up in the States, came to Israel for ten months after high
school, and then lived for two years in the Palestinian-Israeli village
of Kfar Qara, in Israel's North. His life at IPCRI began in 1987, when
the first Intifada erupted. He placed ads in the three major Arabic
dailies that he was looking for someone to talk to about peace, leaving
his home phone number. The calls turned into meetings, and eventually he
found enough people to create IPCRI, which drafts policy recommendations
for resolving the conflict.
Baskin speaks fluent Hebrew and Arabic and since he moved to Israel in
the late 1970s, has positioned himself as an expert and a lynchpin of
contacts between Israeli and Palestinian civil society. He mingles with
Palestinian philosophers in Al-Quds University as easily as he chews the
fat with American tourists on their first trip to Israel, or with IDF
soldiers. He's also often quoted in news stories.
We were a group of about 15 tourists, mostly American Jews with a few
exceptions - a Swedish guy, an American pastor, and two American
students in Israel for studies or an internship. Although the tour was
called Walk the Green Line, it could just have easily been titled Meet
Local Peace Activists or The Palestinians Don't All Bite. I got there
for the second of three days; in the first, the tour visited an Israeli
kibbutz, spoke with the mayor of the regional council in Israel's North,
and saw Nazareth.
Watching Baskin narrate an itinerary that wove back and forth across the
Green Line was a treat. He knows every village and settlement, as well
as how much land was lost and how many families moved in. As we drove
from point to point, Baskin and his guide, Uri, were quick to point out
where the Green Line lies, where the separation wall/fence runs, and
which roads are for Jews only.
The trip was a metaphor for Baskin himself, who is trying to
re-establish Israel's border even as it gets more blurry by the year.
When he went house shopping in Jerusalem, he was careful to only
consider living in Jewish neighborhoods that fell in the 1967 city
borders, and to avoid the ones that cropped up in and around Palestinian
East Jerusalem. He boycotts anything coming out of the settlements,
including ultra-cheap olive oil and Mei Eden water from the Golan
Heights. Yet Baskin, who served in the Israeli army and did reserves,
considers himself an ardent Zionist. For him, creating a peaceful
Palestinian state is the only sensible option for Jews who want to feel
safe in Israel.
Some of the highlights of the trip:
The West Bank village of Umm Rehann has begun processing its sewage with
the help of an Israeli hydrologist and foreign aid. Small-scale sewage
treatment in the West Bank is a win-win. Without treatment, Palestinian
towns have raw sewage running in the streets and streams, and the
polluted water percolates into the groundwater that Israelis drink and
runs into streams that cross the border.
<http://bp3.blogger.com/_i4dNY8tIZ6c/SE2njMsMLaI/AAAAAAAAAKM/8tL0c_z0I...>
We visited the town(s) of Barta'a, which the Green Line bisected in
1948. When Israel conquered the West Bank in 1967, the two halves were
loosely reunited, but with wide discrepancies between the Israeli and
Palestinian sides. For now, residents on either side can mix and go to
school out, but no one knows what will happen in a peace agreement.
Here's the mayor of the Israeli side, Riyad Kabaa.
<http://bp3.blogger.com/_i4dNY8tIZ6c/SE2njfe75mI/AAAAAAAAAKU/TGcooisrK...>
We went to Bil'in, which each Friday becomes the site of non-violent
protests against the path of the security barrier, which has sliced off
part of the village's farmland. (more about the protest here
<http://www.thetruthherzl.com/2008/01/first-we-take-their-land-then-we-t
ake.html> ). When we got there, the fence to the farmland was closed,
and we wound up standing on one side having a surreal chat with the
soldiers who were keeping us out on the other.
<http://bp3.blogger.com/_i4dNY8tIZ6c/SE2nj6_hk9I/AAAAAAAAAKc/XltGHP-o49U
/s1600-h/gershonsoldier.JPG> On our way out, our bus ran into a
roadblock that was the cause of many jokes about having the "real" West
Bank experience.
<http://bp2.blogger.com/_i4dNY8tIZ6c/SE2nkT8aZMI/AAAAAAAAAKk/9Y51PAKKo...>
Another stop was Wadi Fuqin, a Palestinian village sandwiched between
the settlement of Beitar Illit and the Israeli town of Tzur Hadassah. We
spoke to a village teacher there, who said that Wadi Fuqin residents are
torn between wanting to put up hothouses to increase their crop yields,
or to stick with traditional agriculture for its touristic value. He
said the unstable political situation makes the hothouses look like the
better bet. Baskin pointed out the stench of Beitar Illit's sewage,
which overflows the settlement's treatment system on Fridays and runs
into Wadi Fuqin.Here's a section of the farming area, with the
high-rises of Beitar Illit on the hilltop.
<http://bp2.blogger.com/_i4dNY8tIZ6c/SE2nk-FgNlI/AAAAAAAAAKs/Of1jSn_Xm...>
We also visited Al-Quds University, a campus of 10,000 students in East
Jerusalem. This included a stop at the school's Israeli studies
department, where students write theses on topics like the Holocaust in
Jewish collective memory. Outside the American Studies department was a
wall of relics, like this Jane Fonda advertisement.
<http://bp3.blogger.com/_i4dNY8tIZ6c/SE2o9qd2wVI/AAAAAAAAAK0/CLXX-l95zfU
/s1600-h/janefonda.jpg> Another stop at the university was the Abu Jihad
Center for Political Prisoners' Affairs
<http://www.alquds.edu/centers_institutes/acppa/index.php> , a space
covered in letters from Palestinian prisoners, memorabilia from their
time in prison, and a wall of those who died behind bars. At the end of
our tour of the museum, Baskin confronted the museum director. "I
visited museums in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, where hundreds of thousands
of people were killed, and half the museums were devoted to peace.
There's not one word of hope in this museum. Why?" The director didn't
really have an answer, and it was an interesting argument to watch. Here
are "capsules" - they're notes prisoners transported by coating them in
some sort of plastic and swallowing them.
<http://bp1.blogger.com/_i4dNY8tIZ6c/SE2o93t_G8I/AAAAAAAAAK8/p2oOs8NCp...>
Along the trip, we often encountered the security barrier in its
concrete wall format - grey slabs that stretch high around Palestinian
urban centers and have become canvases for graffiti artists.
<http://bp3.blogger.com/_i4dNY8tIZ6c/SE2o-HlAE8I/AAAAAAAAALE/11KD47dj8...>
Gershon Baskin.
<http://bp1.blogger.com/_i4dNY8tIZ6c/SE2o-RhdSrI/AAAAAAAAALM/eAk6cbjww...>
The food on the trip was excellent, including a massive tray of kenafe -
a cheese pastry topped with sweet thin filo noodles.
<http://bp1.blogger.com/_i4dNY8tIZ6c/SE2o-qbgdtI/AAAAAAAAALU/z1CJpi4s-...>
We also saw a lot of traditional village scenes - boys on horseback,
women carrying trays of olives on their heads, fresh chickpeas sold by
the branch, and a flock of goats the same shade as the hillside rocks.
<http://bp0.blogger.com/_i4dNY8tIZ6c/SE2qUen4bBI/AAAAAAAAALs/pI04KY9dN...>
<http://bp1.blogger.com/_i4dNY8tIZ6c/SE2qTyW_QOI/AAAAAAAAALc/JU0qflcde...>
There is a certain purity in the West Bank village lifestyle - the
buildings are low, the streets are about the width of a bus, and the
undeveloped hills roll out into the distance.
<http://bp0.blogger.com/_i4dNY8tIZ6c/SE2qUH4p59I/AAAAAAAAALk/zq0QGT56H...>
Posted by EllaDan at 2:54 PM
<http://www.thetruthherzl.com/2008/06/walk-green-line.html>
<http://www.blogger.com/email-post.g?blogID=6270747346827321503&postID=7
773635872773712399>
<http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=6270747346827321503&postID=77
73635872773712399>
Dear Friends:
Leo and I have just returned from Israel and Palestine and we
want
to report to you while everything is fresh in our minds. The experience
was
so rich and so gripping that we despair of being able to distill it for
you
in this report. Perhaps the best way to convey the spirit is to start
by
telling you about some people we met at the end of our trip.
We want to tell you about Bassam Aramin, a Palestinian man in
his
40's who spent seven years in an Israeli jail. In 2005, he helped to
found
an organization called Combatants for Peace. This organization is
composed
of former Israeli soldiers and Palestinian fighters who have agreed to
struggle together for a peaceful solution to the conflict in Israel and
Palestine. As Bassam said to us, "we have been fighting each other for
60
years, but Israel is not safe and Palestine is not free." The members
of
Combatants for Peace have not given up their struggle but have agreed to
use
only non-violent means to achieve their goals.
In January 2007, Bassam's 10 year old daughter Abir was struck
and
killed on her way home from school by a rubber bullet fired by a member
of
the Israeli Border Police. Bassam continues to work for peace in Israel
and
Palestine. He said about his daughter, "I want justice, not revenge."
Leo
adds this comment: I am still so emotionally touched by meeting Bassam
that
I can't bear not to include something about how deeply exhausted he
looked,
how tired his eyes were, how in awe I was of his bravery.
We want to tell you about Yehudit Elkana, an Israeli woman in
her
60's. In February 2001, Yehudit helped found Machsom Watch, an
organization
of women who go every day to each West Bank checkpoint to observe the
interactions between Israeli soldiers and Palestinians, to report abuses
and
to intervene in emergencies. Yehudit also helped found an organization
called Yesh Din (There is Law) which monitors the response of Israeli
law
enforcement to attacks on Palestinians by soldiers, police and settlers.
Yesh Din is supporting Bassam in his quest to bring to justice the
member of
the border police who killed his daughter.
We met Bassam and Yehudit at the end of the last day of
walking
the green line. We also met with representatives of the wounded from
both
sides, who have joined together to work for peace. These people seemed
so
courageous to us both, and the experience of meeting with them at the
end of
the walk was overwhelming.
Here, in summary form, are some of the things we learned on
the
walk. The green line, so-called because it was marked on a map in green
ink, simply marks where the combatants happened to be when the shooting
stopped in 1949. The line splits villages and families. There is no
natural border between the West Bank and Israel, and a cold peace such
as
exists between Israel and Egypt will not work because the two sides are
too
intertwined.
The green line itself is some 300 kilometers long. The
separation
barrier that Israel has planned between itself and the West Bank will be
more than 700 kilometers long. The additional length is the result of
gerrymandering; instead of building the barrier along the green line,
Israel
built it around, and incorporated into Israel, all of the settlements
that
have been established in the West Bank, with generous margins around
them
that are described as "security zones."
The International Court in the Hague declared this
appropriation
of additional land a violation of International Law, and the route of
the
separation barrier has been modified in particularly egregious
locations.
But the governing principle of Israeli government action is quick to
grab,
slow to give back. For example, the Israeli government built the
barrier at
a Palestinian village called Bili'in in a location that separated the
village from hundreds of acres of its arable land. When the placement
of
the barrier was challenged in Court, the government claimed the
placement
was necessary for security, but lawyers for the village were able to
prove
that the placement of the barrier was for the benefit of an adjacent
ultra-Orthodox settlement, Modi'in Ilit, that wanted land for expansion.
The Israeli High Court declared this expropriation illegal, but there is
"no
money in the budget" to take down the illegal fence and put it where it
belongs, so it stays.
There is no question that the separation barrier was intended
to
address security concerns. Gershon Baskin, the co-head of IPCRI and our
guide, told us that there were several years when he would not allow his
children to ride on buses because of the risk of suicide bombings. The
separation barrier has made it more difficult for a bomber to get into
Israel, and since its construction the number of attacks inside Israel
has
gone down significantly. But the barrier as built and implemented has
many
pernicious effects. As noted above, its placement constitutes a land
grab
by Israel for the benefit of the settlements. The barriers separate
Palestinian farmers from their land and jobs. It separates families and
friends. It makes trips that should take minutes require hours to
complete.
After visiting the village of Bili'in in the West Bank, we
headed
back on tiny roads to a four-lane highway to Jerusalem, which can only
be
used by vehicles with Israeli license plates. We found access to the
highway blocked by huge concrete cubes. If we had been able to get on
to
this highway, we were 10 minutes away from our destination. Instead, we
had
to make a u-turn and travel 90 minutes along the one-laned roads through
the
occupied territories. This was a tiny taste of what Palestinians
experience
every day.
The separation wall blocks contact between Israelis and
Palestinians, which is already abysmally low. In some ways that is the
most
disheartening effect. Less than 5% of Israelis and Palestinians have
had
personal contact with each other. Contacts between Israelis and
Palestinians are becoming less frequent as a result of the restrictions
on
movement caused by the separation barrier. By contrast, when a peace
agreement was reached in Northern Ireland, more than 60% of Protestants
and
Catholics had had personal contact with the other group.
The restrictions on contacts between Israelis and Palestinians
are
felt at every level of the two societies. We visited the nanotechnology
lab
at Al Quds University in the West Bank, directed by Dr. Mukhles Sowwan,
the
head of the university's Materials Engineering Department. Dr. Sowwan,
who
was born in Jerusalem, got his doctorate at the Hebrew University.
Because
he has an Israeli ID, he can attend conferences in Israel, but his
graduate
students, men and women, cannot. It is easier for Dr. Sowwan to arrange
for
his graduate students to study in Holland than in Jerusalem, minutes
from
their homes. Similarly, thousands of Palestinians who used to work in
Israel no longer can.
IPCRI, the organization you have supported, is engaged in
promoting contact between Israelis and Palestinians at every imaginable
level. Gershon Baskin, the Israeli CEO of IPCRI, literally embodies
this
effort. Gershon came to Israel after graduating from NYU in the mid
1970s,
and spent two years living in a Palestinian village. He then went to
work
on a Kibbutz, where the Palestinians were uniformly referred to as
"them".
When the residents of the Kibbutz learned that Gershon had lived with
the
Palestinians, they could not stop asking him questions: what did you
talk to
them about? What do they eat? What are their families like?
The estrangement between the two groups living in the same
land
was total, and no one was doing anything about it. As a frame of
reference,
Gershon told us that in the late 1970's, the County of Los Angeles
itself
had over 160 employees working in intergroup relations, but the State of
Israel had none. Gershon launched himself into a relentless effort to
change this, first through work in the Israeli Government and then as
co-founder of IPCRI. In 1988, after the PLO shifted its position on the
State of Israel, Gershon rode his Vespa into a Palestinian refugee camp
in
the West Bank and started a dialogue that he has continued to foster
ever
since.
At every stop on both sides of the separation barrier, local government
officials, village heads and people from NGOs took time out to meet with
us
and answer questions. Hanna Siniora, the Palestinian CEO of IPCRI is a
commanding figure in Palestinian politics. Gershon Baskin is a
relentless
optimist, fluent in Hebrew and Arabic, who seems to know everyone in
Israel
and Palestine. Through them, IPCRI works effectively in the two
communities.
Here are a few examples of IPCRI's current work to bridge the
divide. We saw a sewage treatment project in a Palestinian village,
designed by an Israeli water engineer, that IPCRI sponsored and pushed
through against Israeli government resistance. There is a conference
going
on right now that brings together Israelis and Palestinians who have
been
wounded in the conflict. Gershon is a trusted intermediary between
Egypt,
Israel and representatives of Hamas in the halting, indirect
negotiations
towards a ceasefire in Gaza.
The trip we took was the best possible education for anyone
interested in understanding the conflict from both sides. We learned
that
there are steadfast, engaged people working for peace in Israel and in
Palestine. It is terribly important to support them, because the
conflict
is a festering sore at the center of a volatile region. If you are
interested in learning more about the conflict (and hiking through
beautiful
country into the bargain), we can't think of a better way to visit
Israel.
Even if we cannot persuade you to walk the green line next year, we hope
you
will continue to support IPCRI as it works for peace and justice in
Israel
and Palestine. Thank you so much for supporting IPCRI.
Leo and Jethro Eisenstein
Jethro Eisenstein
Profeta & Eisenstein
14 Wall Street
New York, NY 10005-2101
212 577 6500
jethr...@gmail.com <mailto:jethr...@gmail.com>
Statement by David Rush, MD (Professor of Nutrition, Community Health,
and Pediatrics (emeritus), Tufts University, Boston, Massachusetts),
about participation in Walk the Green Line, 29-31 May, 2008.
For me this was the most illuminating immersion into the Israel-
Palestine conflict that I have ever experienced. Indeed, I cannot
conceive of any one being involved as a peacemaker functioning truly
effectively without this or some comparable (try to find one!)
experience. Unlike other study tours, we did not just meet "leaders": we
met and talked with scholars and students, war veterans, young and old
peace activists, villagers, politicians; in other words a broad spectrum
of Israeli Jews, and Palestinian and Israeli Arabs, all of whom were
deeply committed to a non-violent solution to the conflict. For me, this
experience destroyed forever the myth that there are no people committed
to peace on "the other side". And walking allowed us to experience such
a strong sense of place in this beautiful and ghost-filled land (and all
too trash-filled as well).
If you are serious about working for peace in Israel/ Palestine, be
thankful to be able to "walk the green line". You may be changed
forever.
--
(please use david.r...@tufts.edu)
Gershon Baskin - Co-CEO, IPCRI
Israel/Palestine Center for Research and Information
P.O. Box 9321, Jerusalem 91092
Tel: +972-2-676-9460 Fax: +972-2-676-8011
Cellphone: +972-(0)52-238-1715
gers...@ipcri.org
http://www.ipcri.org <http://www.ipcri.org/>
Contribute to Peace - Contribute to IPCRI
Make your contribution online
It's fast, it's easy ----IT HELPS
All contributions accepted - large and small
$10 a month is easy and everyone can afford it
(more if you can as well!)
http://www.ipcri.org/donate.html
