I give below two incidents—small in the scheme of things—which indicate the uncertainty of life here and the inability of Palestinians to influence events that concern them: in one case, a roof was taken over by the Israeli army who decided they wanted to use it without permission to keep an eye on neighbours and a local road. In the second, a farmer going to plant out Za'atar as he and his neighbours have often done is refused access to his land on what seem entirely spurious grounds. Note that the restrictions on movement and access imposed on the Palestinians as a consquence of the occupation are contrary to their human rights unless imposed for security or military reasons, and that the Separation Wall/Fence within the West Bank was judged by the International Court of Justice to violate Israel's obligations under international law (July 2004).
1. A NIGHT UNDER OCCUPATION
It’s the frightening and relentless nature of this occupation that must make it so hard to bear for the Palestinians. This example is one we just happened to become involved in, but such things are happening day and night all over the West Bank.
A contact we know quite well called me at 9pm just when we were preparing food before going to bed. His English is very limited, and I thought he said that soldiers were in his house and had been there for some hours. We four EAs took a taxi—his village is some miles away—and met him outside his village. He explained that soldiers were not in his house but in the house of a friend in a nearby village. They were on the roof, and had been there since 7am that day. It is quite common for the Israeli Army to take over a house and confine the Palestinians who live in the house to one room. Here 11 soldiers had taken over the roof—most roofs here are flat with a wall around—in order, they said, to keep an eye on the main road and people in the village. So we went to the house and were invited in under the watchful eyes of the soldiers on the roof. The family of husband, young wife and 3-month old baby had indeed been confined to the downstairs since early that morning, but there were three particularly distressing aspects to this occupation of their house. Firstly they were quite naturally scared stiff. Secondly their mother, father and three sisters in their early 20s lived in the house just across the yard. In this conventional Muslim family the presence of soldiers and men on the roof overlooking their house had made it impossible for the women to venture outside. Thirdly the soldiers had planted an Israeli flag on the roof, an act which would raise doubts and perhaps suspicions in the minds of neighbours and friends.
Having heard all this, we called Machsom Watch, an Israeli peace group. They said that as long as this was an authentic military action and the soldiers were not behaving badly or destructively—as they sometimes do—we could do nothing to get them to go away. We decided that the best thing we could do was for the women in our EA group to support the family by staying overnight with them—by now it was getting quite late—and the family welcomed this. So I came back to our house and the women EAs stayed. The soldiers left at 7am the next day, and had been walking and moving equipment on the roof all night. Nevertheless they left the roof clean and tidy. Perhaps the EA presence had encourage this, but certainly our presence had given the family some comfort.
The reason given for the occupation of the roof—to keep an eye on the main road to Qalqilya and the people in the village—didn’t really make sense since this particular house is set back from the road behind a marble factory and is right at the end of the village. Another possible reason for choosing this house is that one of the men of the family had been in prison, but since this is true for huge numbers of Palestinian men that didn’t seem a valid reason either. The likely reason is that this village has seen a lot of activity by soldiers in the last couple of weeks, including the detention of two young teenage boys for an hour at gunpoint at midnight, and this was just a normal part of what occupation soldiers do.
2. LIFE at an AGRICULTURAL GATE
If life here were not so deadly serious, it would be very good farce.
At about 0830 on Saturday morning I was called by a farmer at an agricultural gate some 2 miles from here. He said his papers were in order, but the soldiers would not let him cross over to his land on the Israeli side of the Wall/Fence. The only way of dealing with incidents is to actually go there, so I took a taxi down to the Gate below Jayyous, and met him there. He explained that he wanted to plant za’atar* on his land but that he was not allowed to take the several thousand small plants he had prepared through the Gate today although the soldiers on duty yesterday allowed him to do so then. So we went to talk to the soldiers. It appeared that his permit gives him permission to farm his land on the Israeli side, but they suspected that he might sell the small plants rather than plant them himself and his permit does not cover business activities. A further complication was that another man was to help him plant the Za’atar without cash payment but with the promise of one third of the crop, a very common arrangement between farmers here, but in this case it apparently raised questions in the soldiers’ minds as to whose crop this was and whether it was some kind of sale. The farmer was adamant that he just wanted to plant his Za’atar and had to do it today if the plants were not to die, but despite arguments back and forth for the best part of an hour, the soldiers insisted in a fairly pleasant way that, although they wanted to help the farmer, they were simply following the law. They suggested we could phone the District Commanders Office but yesterday was Friday, and the office was closed. They also suggested he go to the DCO office and get his permit rewritten. Finally I suggested that one of them could accompany the farmer to his land to make sure he planted rather than sold the plants, and they agreed to this: they phoned a military colleague who turned up in a jeep to go with the farmer to his land. The soldiers emphasised to me that this was a one-off for yesterday but it seems the problem was solved at least for the day.
This small incident indicates the problems farmers have for even the simplest task and how the interpretation of the rules changes from day to day so that planning is impossible. There is also the fact that this man was very assertive and articulate in English and Hebrew as well as Arabic, and that I was there. There would be many less assertive and capable farmers who would simply have turned round, gone home and lost both their plants and a day’s work. And finally there is the cost of all this to the Israelis—five soldiers, phone calls back and forth, and at least an hour’s time.
*Za’atar is a small herb, very popular and so widely grown in fields in this area on both sides of the Wall/Fence. Zaytoun have the product, and some of you may have bought some from me in the UK.
Mike Barnes
3 May 2010
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