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My name is Nina Mayorek. I live in Jerusalem. I am a peace activist and a member of Machsom Watch. MachsomWatch, which means Checkpoint-Watch, is an Israeli women's organization which carries out observations at military checkpoints located throughout the entire West Bank. We strive to de-escalate the frequently tense situations existing at the checkpoints between Israeli soldiers and Palestinians. We report our observations on our website www.machsomwatch.org . Every Saturday, my friends and I travel through the West Bank in order to find out what is going on there. In light of the great hopes evoked by Ariel Sharon’s Gaza disengagement plan and the Sharm al Sheikh summit of Abbas and Sharon, I would like to share my own observations of what has been happening recently in the West Bank. Therefore I shall take you on an imaginary tour through the occupied West Bank where we shall see 5 different places. We shall first go south from Jerusalem as far as Hebron, and then return to Jerusalem before going as far north as Nablus.
Let’s go to the Occupied West Bank 5 4 Abu Dis Walaje 1 2 At-Tuwani 3
Let us start from my home in Jerusalem. Soon we shall pass the Green Line – the only internationally recognized border of Israel. Today, very few Israelis know (or care to recall), that when they pass the railway tracks near the Jerusalem Zoo they enter the Occupied Territories of the West Bank. The West Bank has been occupied by Israel since the 1967 war. What does it mean to enter “occupied” land? It means that we enter a territory inhabited by two kinds of people. One group consists of 240,000 West Bank Jewish settlers who have all possible rights and protection from Israeli national institutions. The other group is comprised of West Bank 2.4 million Palestinians, stateless people, who are denied most basic human rights: to work, to study, to a free movement, to health care, to ownership of their property. Many implications for daily life ensue. For example, we cannot invite our Palestinian friends to go with us. They cannot use the same roads. There is a whole system of apartheid roads that the Israeli army calls "sterile roads," meaning sterile from Palestinians. On roads open to Palestinians one frequently encounters “flying” (improvised) military checkpoints, where Palestinians may be stuck for hours, and yet Israelis pass quickly.
West Bank Arabs- 2,400,000 Jewish settlers-240,000 Gaza Strip Arabs-1,400,000 Jewish settlers-7,500 Jerusalem beyond the green line* Arabs- 250,000 Jewish settlers-190,000 * Source: PASSIA Israel within the green line Jews- 5,200,000 Arabs-1,300,000
Our first stop is the Wallaje village, just south of Jerusalem. One cannot see happy faces here. Nearly every house is threatened with a demolition order from the Jerusalem municipality, and we see piles of rubble all around: these are the remains of houses that were already demolished. The State of Israel decided to annex the Wallaje land, but without its inhabitants! The Wallaje villagers were declared illegal squatters in their own homes. One may note that right now there are 2000 outstanding demolition orders on Palestinian homes in the Jerusalem area. Houses are being demolished under the pretext that they were built without permits (i.e. “illegally”). However, Israeli authorities give very few permits to Palestinians for building homes, in very few places. Obtaining a building license is a protracted and costly process that the majority of the impoverished Palestinian society cannot afford.
House demolition in Walaje near Jerusalem January 2005-photo EAPPI
Walaje village- A demolished house of a blind man (January 2005 photo: Nina Mayorek)
From Wallaje we continue south along the central road of the West Bank. We see Jewish settlements expanding in all directions. For miles, we see the extensive permanent settlements, which are absolutely illegal under international law. Do not forget that these nice villas are for Jews only. Palestinians living in the West Bank can provide the labor for building the settlements, but they cannot live in them.
Jewish “legal" settlement –Efrata in the West Bank(January 2005-photo:Nina Mayorek)
Here we also see one of 105 outposts (which were proclaimed illegal by Israel and which prime minister Sharon promised President Bush he would evacuate long ago, but somehow the evacuation is continually postponed, and recently we heard about forthcoming "legalization" of outposts). These outposts are built by Jewish settlers using the Wild West Method with a full support of the State of Israel (as described in the recent Sasson report presented to the Israeli government). It works like this: you like the place, and you do not care if the land is private Palestinian property. You put caravans there and you build a road. Very soon you replace the caravans with proper houses. You do not worry about security, knowing the army will provide it for you. You do not worry about acquiring building permits, infrastructure, water and electricity, because if you are Jewish, the Israeli Government will provide you with all of the above. You know your house will never be demolished.
A new outpost-beginning of a new settlement on the way to Hebron(January 2005-photo by Nina Mayorek)
In the meantime, we arrive in Hebron, an ancient city, where On can visit Abraham's tomb – a worship site for both Muslims and Jews. When we reach Abraham's tomb we see the empty streets of the old city. Most Palestinian families could not withstand any more violent attacks from Jewish settlers and months-long curfews imposed by the army, and left their homes. These Palestinians could not protect themselves, their property or their neighborhood. Just recently, the Israeli Government decided to build a new road to one of Jewish settlements in the city. The road will pass over the Muslim cemetery. There is no institution to which Palestinians can appeal for protection of their rights. The Israeli policemen told Checkpoint Watch volunteers: when Palestinians call us we simply hang up the phone.
Palestinians were chased out and settlers are moving in January 2005-photo Nina Mayorek
The third stop on our tour is the beautiful village of At-Tuwani, just a 15 minute drive south of Hebron (for those allowed to drive on the Israeli road, which excludes most Palestinians). In this 500-year-old village, shepherds make their living from their sheep. However, it is their bad luck that Jewish settlers also fancied the beautiful scenery and built the Ma’on settlement on a hill overlooking the village. Ma’on settlers have a very clear attitude towards their Palestinian neighbors: they want them out. The settlers are the lords of the land and the Israeli army provides them with all possible military support. Palestinians experience different modes of harassment virtually daily. Palestinian elementary school pupils on the their way to At-Tuwani school have been one of the favorite targets - Ma’on settlers set dogs on these children and throw stones at them. The school headmaster has recorded many days on which the kids arrived at the school seriously injured. But nobody dares to arrest the Ma’on settlers: in the Israeli reality, these people are above the law. In fact, the Israeli government wants to expel all the villagers of at-Tuwani to a nearby town of Yatta, a designated destination of South Hebron villagers dispossessed from their land.
Pupils of At-Tuwani (South Hebron Hills) are frequently attacked by Maon settlers on the way to their school (February-2005-photo: Nina Mayorek)
Let us now return to Jerusalem, where we can visit the Palestinian neighborhood of Abu Dis. There, an 8 meter concrete wall separates a Palestinian suburb of 60,000 people from Jerusalem by cutting across the main road. We can also see nearby a new (Jewish) settlement in the process of creation. Now it is only one house, but a new road is already being built to the area. Soldiers are stationed on the roof to provide security, and very soon Palestinian houses in the area will be demolished because they “endanger the settlement" or for some other "security" reason.
Why checkpoints and walls are needed? Wall in Abu Dis New settlement-Kidmat Zion January 2005 photo Nina Mayorek
From here we continue north, again driving on the main West Bank road, road number 60. We arrive at Nablus, home to approximately 130,000 inhabitants. Nablus serves as the commercial, industrial and services’ center for a rural population numbering hundreds of thousands. Over the last four and a half years the people of Nablus and its environs have seen more death and destruction at the hands of the Israeli military than the residents of any other locale in the West Bank. Countless invasions, incursions and aerial attacks left hundreds of civilians dead and the Old City severely damaged. Moreover, Nablus is effectively sealed off by a battery of checkpoints and roadblocks that surround it from all directions. We stop at the Huwara checkpoint, at the southern entrance to the city. This is the military checkpoint that I visit with my Machsom Watch colleagues nearly every Saturday. Here we can see crowds of desperate people who need to reach their workplaces, universities, schools, medical clinics or relatives. Do not imagine Huwarra as an easygoing place where every unarmed person can pass at his or her leisure. Oh no, there are countless reasons why one may not be allowed to pass. When I come there I often encounter the same people, usually students from the university in Nablus, who can waste 6 hours daily on their way to and from the university.
Huwarra checkpoint -southern entrance to Nablus (November 2004photo: Nina Mayorek)
Huwarra checkpoint-southern entrance to Nablus* Students on their way to Al-Najah University January 2005 photo Nina Mayorek *Comment, June 2005: Meanwhile, the southern half of this checkpoint was closed, while the northern one is still “well and alive”. So people are harassed “only” on the way from Nablus to surrounding villages, but not on the way to Nablus. In the Israeli government parlance this is called “goodwill gestures towards Palestinians”.
Israeli military and state officials tell us that the above measures - all of which constitute severe violations of international law – were deemed necessary in the course of Israel's war against terrorism. This is the place to emphasize that I personally, like all members of Machsom Watch, strongly condemn Palestinian terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians and believe that such criminal acts cannot be justified on any grounds, including the disparity of military power between the Israeli army and the Palestinian resistance groups. Israel's right to protect its citizens, however, should be exercised only along and from within its internationally recognized borders, that is, the Green Line. By waging a war of destruction against the entire civilian population of the occupied Palestinian territories Israel is only breeding terrorism not eliminating it.
Nablus is also surrounded by military checkpoints because it is surrounded by Jewish settlements: Itamar, Izhar, Alon Moreh, Har Braha and others. Settlers definitely need protection. They are strongly disliked by the Palestinian population and with good reason. The State of Israel expropriated Palestinian land on behalf of the settlers. There were many cases when settlers shot Palestinians without being punished by the Israeli justice system. The settlers rob and destroy olive trees, which used to provide livelihood for Palestinian villagers. Because of these reasons the settlers are hated and need protection. And they get it. The Israeli army conducts a colonization war on Palestinians to protect settlers' interests. The colonization enterprise leads directly to Palestinian terror.
The West Bank White areas with blue triangles Jewish settlements with surrounding annexed areas and access roads The obstacle to peace 145-permanent settlements with 240,000 settlers 105-outposts with 1000 settlers
Returning from the Occupation Tour of the West Bank, I conclude that there is no basis for optimism yet. While Abbas and Sharon may have shaken hands at Sharm al Sheikh, the situation on the ground has not yet improved. The chief obstacle to peace between Israelis and Palestinians are the West Bank settlements: 145 permanent settlements and 105 outposts, all of which are illegal according to international law. It is important to add that the settlement enterprise continues now, in these days, at an accelerated rate. Settlements preempt the possibility of a " two state solution." They prevent the establishment of a viable and contiguous Palestinian state and could perpetuate the Israeli-Palestinian conflict forever. I would like to ask the American public to exert its influence on the U.S. administration, the Senate and the Congress to put a stop to the Israeli government's policy of colonization and supremacy. This policy destroys all chances for reconciliation and peace for both nations.
