Looking for Trouble

Guest blog by Gerri Haynes: Delegates meet with Israeli activist

As she did last year, Gerri has organized a Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility delegation of doctors and other health care providers to work in hospitals and clinics in Gaza in an effort to directly help the people there and to bring attention to the ongoing humanitarian crisis that the Israeli blockade has created. She has been sending back reports from inside and outside the Israeli blockade.

Today felt like a bonus day. We waited for a meeting that didn’t happen, then were treated to an exquisite history and tour of East Jerusalem by Yohav, a member of the Israeli Committee Against Housing Demolitions. With brilliance and humor, Yohav dismantled Israel’s approach to occupation and settlement development.

Using maps, he demonstrated the diminution of Palestinian land and told us that Israel’s dilemma is, “land we want and people we don’t want.” The governmental expansion of what constitutes the municipality of Jerusalem from a relatively small area around the Old City to an area that stretches from Ramallah to Bethlehem was, he said, an effort to address that dilemma. By taking into Jerusalem Palestinian land which was sparsely populated and then walling out (with the Wall) more heavily populated Palestinian areas, Israel effectively protected their need for more land with a Palestinian minority – making Jerusalem ever more difficult to share. This process of walling out cut off families from relatives, children from schools, people from economic possibility and agricultural land from the people who own it.

He claimed that the decrease in suicide bombings is not due to the Wall, but more probably due to a very effective Israeli secret police force and a decision by Palestinians that suicide bombing was not being effective. Since 20,000 Palestinians move “illegally” into Israel every day to work (without a permit and by moving around the Wall), he held that it is illogical to believe that the Wall is the major cause for a decrease in suicide bombings.

Since the Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem pay the same taxes as the Jewish residents of East Jerusalem and should therefore have the same municipal services, Yohav invited us to compare the appearance of the two areas. West Jerusalem: modern roads and sidewalks; East Jerusalem: “where the sidewalk ends” along pot-holed roads. West Jerusalem: classrooms with twenty-plus students per classroom; East Jerusalem: in need of 1500 new classrooms and double-shifting its students. The Israeli Supreme Court has adjudicated this issue but only about one-third of the mandated classrooms are under construction and due for completion on the time-line established. West Jerusalem: modern sewage system; East Jerusalem: ancient septic systems that drain into the ground water and affect the health of the entire area, etc.

Building permits are rarely awarded to Palestinians in East Jerusalem and residents who build without a permit are fined and/or their home is destroyed. Since 1967, more than 25,000 Palestinian homes have been destroyed. New, permitted, construction is underway in East Jerusalem – for Jewish Israelis. We drove through Sheikh Jarrah – an area under present contention.

This afternoon, we traveled to Bethlehem to visit WPSR’s 1993 World Peacemaker Award winner, Zoughbi Zoughbi, director of Wi’am, The Palestinian Conflict Resolution Centre. Zoughbi talked with us about the political situation in Palestine, the devastating effects of the Wall on the people of his area, the problems with water (Israel turns controls the water to Bethlehem and recently turned off the water to the entire city for 13 days) and his constant hope that justice and peace will come.

Zoughbi is a member of the City Council of Bethlehem and very active in conflict resolution for the people of his city. As we walked with him to the Nativity Church, almost every person we passed greeted him by name.

In the Wi’am office, we met Amira – a delightful woman who is studying and writing about the Nakba. She related her tunnel experience in 2006. Unable to gain admission to Gaza, she walked and crawled through one of the tunnels – spent two weeks learning about the situation of that politically tumultuous time – then walked and crawled through a tunnel back to Egypt.

Having just seen the tunnel area in Rafah, we were stunned by the thought of this petite and courageous woman finding her way in and out of Gaza through this most dangerous route.

Reluctantly, we said goodbye to Zoughbi – our friend since the first WPSR visit to this area of the world in 1993. He has traveled with WPSR delegations to Iraq and Syria and throughout his home.

We wish for Zoughbi and all the people of this region a pathway to peace.