Last week was "Mid-term orientation week" in EAPPI-speak, but, despite its name, it was really excellent. The idea was to take us out of the West Bank for 5 days—including most of a day off in Haifa and Acre—to see a broader picture.
The focus was on Israeli peace groups. It is part of our EA remit to work with Israeli (and Palestinian) peace groups although in Jayyous the only one we work with and that to a limited degree is Machsom Watch who have been monitoring and influencing what goes on at checkpoints for 10 years. We had heard from three such groups before we started work, and we now added another three. I shall mention them all below and in another Report, but in general they are small, and not seen as having much influence on Israeli society or government. But they are wonderfully courageous and dedicated people, and deserve all the support we can give them.
All of us also visited a settlement, Efrat, near Bethlehem to hear a talk by the PR man. It was a beautiful place, one of a string of settlements across these hills. The talk was interesting, but not especially persuasive. But that's another story.
And we spent an afternoon at Yad Vashem, the impressive Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem
We four British EAs also met an impressively knowledgeable representative of Mr Blair's Quartet Office, and the also impressive British Deputy Vice Consul in Jerusalem during this week, but that's also another story.
1. Sderot and Gaza—"Othervoice" (www.othervoice.org)
· Wednesday morning we were in Sderot, about 2 miles from Gaza and subjected for 9 years to rocket attacks from there. It was almost surreal—English-looking, slightly rolling countryside with fields growing a variety of crops. However the hay had been gathered, so the season was more advanced than in the UK. Sderot itself was pleasant, a town of 20,000 people many of them Russian immigrants. Looking closer, however, I saw a safe room attached to each house or apartment, and reinforced blockhouses at each bus stop. New, reinforced schools are being built to replace old, vulnerable ones. When the siren goes off, a rocket can land somewhere after 15 seconds so there is little time to take shelter. Indiscriminate attack on civilians in this way is contrary to International Humanitarian Law.
· An Israeli woman and man described in moving terms the emotional traumas associated with living under unpredictable rocket fire, especially where their children were concerned. A visit to the supermarket becomes an "emotional project" and taking a minibus load of children to school a gut-wrenching experience. The reaction of most people in Sderot has been intolerance: they no longer care about the people who live in Gaza. These two courageous people reacted differently. They remembered the 1½ million people living under siege in Gaza, and set up "Othervoice" a non-political group to campaign for an end to the siege of Gaza and different and creative actions that can lead to a long-term solution to the conflict in their area. They make contacts with people in Gaza, including regular phone calls, and seminars with young Gazans.
· Ceasefire: the ceasefire from June to November 2008 was a chance for Sderot to get back to normal life. But the Israeli attack in December 2008/January 2009 was really frightening for these two: people in Sderot were delighted but these two were against the attack and felt very isolated. They had heart rending phone calls from friends in Gaza. The walls of their houses shook the whole time. "War pollutes your heart". An article "Not in my name and not for my security" received huge media coverage. A letter just sent calls for the end of the siege.
· Gaza: seeing Gaza from a small hill was also surreal. It was quiet, and there was no indication of the violence wreaked upon it nor the appalling living conditions of the people.
· Pre-1948: the tragedy is that pre-1987 relationships between Israelis and Palestinians in the area were good—visits to the beach, and markets for shopping. Before 1948 the area was very mixed with 40-50 Palestinian villages and many kibbutzim. During 1948/9, the villages were destroyed and the population of Gaza increased 5-fold with an influx of refugees mainly from the north
.2. Rabbis for Human Rights
· This is a small group of 180 Rabbis—American and Israeli—who take seriously the injunctions of the Torah, "Justice, justice shall you pursue" and "Happy are those who act justly, who do right at all times" (Deut. 16.20 and Ps. 106:3). Founded in 1988, they are the rabbinical voice of conscience, and RHR is the only religion-based peace NGO in Israel—other peace groups are overwhelmingly secular.
· They don't take a position on the big political issues but campaign on the issues that affect ordinary Palestinians such as land rights. So they organise bus loads of Israeli to go olive picking every October and have a West Bank Human Rights Coordinator whom we have met. He takes a very pro-active non-violent attitude to human rights and land rights abuses and is very willing to intervene, especially where settlers are concerned.
· Rabbi Yehiel Grenimann gave us a fascinating analysis of the development of the settler movement.
3. New Profile (www.newprofile.org)
· Two Israeli women members told us about this small group which is concerned about the militaristic nature of Israeli society. They believe that Israeli culture generates an image of a world in which war was, is and will always be inevitable, a necessary and acceptable way of solving our problems. That is certainly my impression from outside.
· A military culture: they showed us a series of advertisements which were truly horrifying in their use of the military and military images to sell perfectly normal consumer products. It is also true that armed soldiers are everywhere in Israel—I saw three in a beach resort on the Dead Sea on Saturday. It goes further than that in the sense that entry to the army at 18 is rarely questioned, and the army is so revered that army service is seen as the route to senior jobs in civilian society: a career officer will retire on full pension at age 44, and will likely then go straight into education, perhaps as a headmaster, or industry as a senior manager or director. The military presence in schools is ubiquitous: uniformed women act as teaching assistants, and students can take time off from school for induction into the army. School and kindergarten playgrounds usually have models of tanks, fighter planes, etc, for kids to play on or with.
· The senior levels of the army and the government are almost interchangeable with Prime Ministers usually having been senior commanders.
· The high-tech military industrial complex is very important and successful in Israel which, in its various wars and attacks, can trial new weapons and systems.
· Avoidance: it is quite possible to avoid military service, but young people cannot easily access the necessary information. Incitement to refuse to serve is a criminal offence, so Newprofile has to be very careful to provide a counselling network only to people who ask, and never to approach the public "cold". A right wing group took them to the High Court alleging incitement, but charges were dropped.
· Avoidance on religious grounds by Orthodox Jews is increasing—30,000 pa are now excused.
· There is no discussion in Israeli society about how large the army needs to be—it just recruits as many youngsters as it can.
Mike Barnes,
12 May 2010
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