Interviews: From PLO to Bedouins
In March of this year, facing my 82nd birthday and a number of health issues, I had the strong feeling that if I wanted to see Israel/Palestine again, I had to do it SOON. Being afraid that it would be too difficult to take a bus tour with many other people, I arranged for a private tour with a knowledgeable guide and his private car with the understanding that we would skip all sightseeing and, for 11 days, concentrate on people and conditions in the West Bank. It was a trip that turned out to be overwhelming and eye-opening. All the people I met, politicians and simple villagers, farmers and Bedouins were asked two questions: “How do you feel about the situation at the present time?” and “How do you see the future?” Everybody had similar stories about the present, the despair, the anger, the struggle. The future was individually different as to the possible solutions, the possible dangers, and the possible outcomes. To describe my experiences in detail would take a book.
We drove from Jerusalem through the congested Qualandia Checkpoint, past oppressive clumps of settlements and along the overwhelmingly ugly 26’ high concrete wall with high observation towers, all covered with graffiti and drawings. The Jewish settlements are built in an arc around Jerusalem on land that was supposed to become the capital of Palestine, and the Wall is about to close off Palestinian access to the Jordan Valley which, according the Partition Plan of 1947, was also meant to be part of Palestine.
We drove from Jerusalem through the congested Qualandia Checkpoint, past oppressive clumps of settlements and along the overwhelmingly ugly 26’ high concrete wall with high observation towers, all covered with graffiti and drawings. The Jewish settlements are built in an arc around Jerusalem on land that was supposed to become the capital of Palestine, and the Wall is about to close off Palestinian access to the Jordan Valley which, according the Partition Plan of 1947, was also meant to be part of Palestine.
The first interviews were with an Executive Member of the Palestine Liberation Organization in Ramallah, the Head of the Palestinian Trade Union, the Leader of the Palestinian Communist Party, and the former Security Chief of Arafat, who himself had tried to penetrate Dimona and had been incarcerated by the Israelis for 12 years. All, very graciously, gave me deep insight into the political background, the changing situation on the ground and the territorial, demographic, environmental and refugee problems.
They also all expressed their deeply-felt dismay about the disrespect with which Palestinians (called Arabs) are treated by Israel, and their desire to eventually have not only peace, but peace with respect and dignity. Their pride in being Palestinian and their belief in the potential of their people makes them hope for a solution in which Jews and Palestinians are able to live in this country as equals, but all of them describe their dealings with Israel, the occupying power, as grim..
All of them also believe that the main problem is the fact that the United States stands behind Israel with its full force and power, is covering Israeli policies and crimes and thereby preventing a just solution. They see the future as catastrophic, unless the US gives up its unquestioning support of Israel and stops supplying it with billions of foreign and military aid.
They also all expressed their deeply-felt dismay about the disrespect with which Palestinians (called Arabs) are treated by Israel, and their desire to eventually have not only peace, but peace with respect and dignity. Their pride in being Palestinian and their belief in the potential of their people makes them hope for a solution in which Jews and Palestinians are able to live in this country as equals, but all of them describe their dealings with Israel, the occupying power, as grim..
All of them also believe that the main problem is the fact that the United States stands behind Israel with its full force and power, is covering Israeli policies and crimes and thereby preventing a just solution. They see the future as catastrophic, unless the US gives up its unquestioning support of Israel and stops supplying it with billions of foreign and military aid.
What can we do, I asked? The answer was in all cases that the US citizens should work on their own government and help reverse the tide through boycotts, elections, demonstrations etc. and to insist, from inside, that the US government, by withdrawing its unquestioning support, will force Israel to solve the problem of its own existence in the land of Palestine.
We also visited Arafat’s tomb in the Government Complex and visited two Colleges and spoke to the Directors about students’ concerns. Palestinian parents put great stress on education for their children. Even in refugee camps fathers, knowing that they will never be able to improve their own status, give their last shekel to send their children to school. In Nablus we visited the Administrator of the Balata Refugee Camp (built for 5,000 refugees, now housing 27,000), a worker in the UNWRA office, a person in charge of a Woman’s Cooperative earning money by embroidering items, and a kind of camp historian who told us that 200 young men from Balata had become martyrs, killed by Israelis or as suicide bombers. There are 54 Palestinian refugee camps all over the world, 19 of them in Palestine, and all are seething with anger.
We also visited Arafat’s tomb in the Government Complex and visited two Colleges and spoke to the Directors about students’ concerns. Palestinian parents put great stress on education for their children. Even in refugee camps fathers, knowing that they will never be able to improve their own status, give their last shekel to send their children to school. In Nablus we visited the Administrator of the Balata Refugee Camp (built for 5,000 refugees, now housing 27,000), a worker in the UNWRA office, a person in charge of a Woman’s Cooperative earning money by embroidering items, and a kind of camp historian who told us that 200 young men from Balata had become martyrs, killed by Israelis or as suicide bombers. There are 54 Palestinian refugee camps all over the world, 19 of them in Palestine, and all are seething with anger.
Jenin was in an uproar. Although Jenin is in the Palestinian-controlled area, soldiers had
stormed the Jenin Refugee Camp in the middle of the night and killed 3 young men. A funeral was going on with angry masses clogging the streets. We did not drive in, but spoke to people in Balata and Jenin. The word I heard over and over again was “Third Intifada”, and the belief in time as moving in a cycle, and that, even though their lives are incredibly and heartbreakingly difficult, they are convinced that Israel with all their military might would be willing to negotiate if only the United States would stop its unconditional support.
From Nablus we drove up to Mt. Gerizim, and I had a long talk with the Head Priest of the Samaritans who told me about the history of his people and his belief that the Samaritans represent the real and original Jews. I also interviewed Palestinian Christians and the priest of their Church in Bethlehem as well as the head of the Palestinian Lutheran “Redeemer” Church in the Old City of Jerusalem about the situation of Christian Palestinians.
In Beit Sahour I had an interview with the Head of the Alternative Information Center, Dr. Nassar Ibrahim, who gave me great insight into the underlying problems and also made me aware of the “Bannerman Report” which may have the answer for the reason the US supports Israel with such irrational insistence. See “Bannerman Report” on my website under “Letters”. Here I heard the word “Pan-Arabism” again, which came up at different times in the talks with people who saw the Palestinian problem as one of European colonialists subjugating the indigenous population in Palestine. He also spoke about “balance of power” which shifts and is shifting now (“ the process is already in the works”), and tied all of this in with the Arab Spring in North Africa and the Middle East, and even brought in Russia as a possibly emerging power aiming at influence in the area.
In the Jordan Valley I saw splendid Jewish farms, with sprinklers running and thriving, whereas Bedouin villages are not allowed to dig or improve wells and have to purchase and cart in water in drums. Fassaye, a little place settled since Roman times, houses a group of activists who help the surrounding Bedouins resist threatened resettlement and maintain schools for their children.
Hebron and the area around Hebron is an especially difficult subject. The old city of Hebron is a ghost town with a hand-full of settlers who are vicious in their hate of Palestinians. The settlers attack school children and old women every day, and the army doesn’t interfere because their duty is to protect the settlers. We talked to residents of Hebron, and I walked over and spoke to soldiers standing at the entrance to Abraham’s Tomb. Young men, some of them spouting Zionist slogans, but some of them also cautious and introspective, probably having a bad time explaining their part in it all. In the villages around Hebron settlers are beating up Palestinians every day, cutting down olive trees and stealing land. I left Hebron with a very heavy heart.
It is my personal opinion that two beliefs lie at the bottom of this conflict, and both of them are rooted in the Bible and therefore seen as the Absolute Truth, namely that the Jews are the Chosen people, and that God gave them the Land of Canaan. The people who believe in the Bible as God’s word will have the greatest problem changing their viewpoint.
In the Negev I stayed for two days with a Bedouin family, Israeli citizens, in an unrecognized village. The government’s Prawer plan wants to force the Negev Bedouins into one of five towns built especially for them with small houses close to each other. The Bedouins, in their desire for the wide open spaces, resist with all their might. My host, an educated Bedouin, a high-school teacher, graduate of the Beer Sheba Law School and planning to work in an organization for Bedouin rights, received a demolition notice for his house which his family has occupied since his great-grandfather’s time. He did not talk about the US withdrawing its support, because to him as a citizen of Israel it doesn't make a difference.
At the end of my trip through Palestine I stayed two days in Tel Aviv, and, in order to also hear from the other side, I visited a settlement and spoke to settlers (who believe in transferring the “Arabs” to other Arabian countries), had an interview with an orthodox Jew who was working to “judaize Jaffa” and two young men studying in a Yeshiva. Their viewpoint, as was expected, was strongly colored by Zionism, and they thought about Palestinians as inferior people and as Palestine as their own rightful place.
The last afternoon I spent with three lovely young people in a café in the harbor of Jaffa. They are
members of Zochrot (We Remember), an Israeli NGO which objects to the change of the Arabic names of streets and towns to Jewish ones. They remind Israelis of the former life of now Jewish towns and try to keep the memory of the Palestinian history of the land alive. In their spare time they work on the establishment of kindergartens for Jewish and Palestinian children so they grow up together and become friends. The heaviness of the preceding 11 days lifted somewhat for me because I saw in them a glimmer of what life could be like if the cycle turns, the balance shifts, the military power declines, and Israelis and Palestinians can both occupy this land in peace. Hope springs eternal.
Click here for my Conclusions
stormed the Jenin Refugee Camp in the middle of the night and killed 3 young men. A funeral was going on with angry masses clogging the streets. We did not drive in, but spoke to people in Balata and Jenin. The word I heard over and over again was “Third Intifada”, and the belief in time as moving in a cycle, and that, even though their lives are incredibly and heartbreakingly difficult, they are convinced that Israel with all their military might would be willing to negotiate if only the United States would stop its unconditional support.
From Nablus we drove up to Mt. Gerizim, and I had a long talk with the Head Priest of the Samaritans who told me about the history of his people and his belief that the Samaritans represent the real and original Jews. I also interviewed Palestinian Christians and the priest of their Church in Bethlehem as well as the head of the Palestinian Lutheran “Redeemer” Church in the Old City of Jerusalem about the situation of Christian Palestinians.
In Beit Sahour I had an interview with the Head of the Alternative Information Center, Dr. Nassar Ibrahim, who gave me great insight into the underlying problems and also made me aware of the “Bannerman Report” which may have the answer for the reason the US supports Israel with such irrational insistence. See “Bannerman Report” on my website under “Letters”. Here I heard the word “Pan-Arabism” again, which came up at different times in the talks with people who saw the Palestinian problem as one of European colonialists subjugating the indigenous population in Palestine. He also spoke about “balance of power” which shifts and is shifting now (“ the process is already in the works”), and tied all of this in with the Arab Spring in North Africa and the Middle East, and even brought in Russia as a possibly emerging power aiming at influence in the area.
In the Jordan Valley I saw splendid Jewish farms, with sprinklers running and thriving, whereas Bedouin villages are not allowed to dig or improve wells and have to purchase and cart in water in drums. Fassaye, a little place settled since Roman times, houses a group of activists who help the surrounding Bedouins resist threatened resettlement and maintain schools for their children.
Hebron and the area around Hebron is an especially difficult subject. The old city of Hebron is a ghost town with a hand-full of settlers who are vicious in their hate of Palestinians. The settlers attack school children and old women every day, and the army doesn’t interfere because their duty is to protect the settlers. We talked to residents of Hebron, and I walked over and spoke to soldiers standing at the entrance to Abraham’s Tomb. Young men, some of them spouting Zionist slogans, but some of them also cautious and introspective, probably having a bad time explaining their part in it all. In the villages around Hebron settlers are beating up Palestinians every day, cutting down olive trees and stealing land. I left Hebron with a very heavy heart.
It is my personal opinion that two beliefs lie at the bottom of this conflict, and both of them are rooted in the Bible and therefore seen as the Absolute Truth, namely that the Jews are the Chosen people, and that God gave them the Land of Canaan. The people who believe in the Bible as God’s word will have the greatest problem changing their viewpoint.
In the Negev I stayed for two days with a Bedouin family, Israeli citizens, in an unrecognized village. The government’s Prawer plan wants to force the Negev Bedouins into one of five towns built especially for them with small houses close to each other. The Bedouins, in their desire for the wide open spaces, resist with all their might. My host, an educated Bedouin, a high-school teacher, graduate of the Beer Sheba Law School and planning to work in an organization for Bedouin rights, received a demolition notice for his house which his family has occupied since his great-grandfather’s time. He did not talk about the US withdrawing its support, because to him as a citizen of Israel it doesn't make a difference.
At the end of my trip through Palestine I stayed two days in Tel Aviv, and, in order to also hear from the other side, I visited a settlement and spoke to settlers (who believe in transferring the “Arabs” to other Arabian countries), had an interview with an orthodox Jew who was working to “judaize Jaffa” and two young men studying in a Yeshiva. Their viewpoint, as was expected, was strongly colored by Zionism, and they thought about Palestinians as inferior people and as Palestine as their own rightful place.
The last afternoon I spent with three lovely young people in a café in the harbor of Jaffa. They are
members of Zochrot (We Remember), an Israeli NGO which objects to the change of the Arabic names of streets and towns to Jewish ones. They remind Israelis of the former life of now Jewish towns and try to keep the memory of the Palestinian history of the land alive. In their spare time they work on the establishment of kindergartens for Jewish and Palestinian children so they grow up together and become friends. The heaviness of the preceding 11 days lifted somewhat for me because I saw in them a glimmer of what life could be like if the cycle turns, the balance shifts, the military power declines, and Israelis and Palestinians can both occupy this land in peace. Hope springs eternal.
Click here for my Conclusions