Mideast - Jewish Solidarity with Palestinians

["Charles Brown" <CharlesB@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Mideast - Jewish Solidarity with Palestinians

* We Refuse to be Enemies/Arab and Jewish Women in Israel
[London Times article]

* We Refuse to be Enemies/Arab and Jewish Women in Israel
[Gila Svirsky open letter to friends from Israel]

* Condemn Bus Bombings
[Press Release: November 23, 2000 of The Middle East Crisis Committee
(MECC) and the Palestine Right to Return Coalition (PRRC, Connecticut
Chapter)

====================

Jew risks bullets to help Palestinians - The London Times

The London Times  November 18, 2000

Jew risks bullets to help Palestinians

>From Sam Kiley in Hares

A Jewish woman has turned herself into a human shield to protect
Palestinian olive pickers from Israeli soldiers and armed settlers.
For the past month, the 3,500 residents of Hares have watched  their
olive crop spoil on the bough. When they nip over the earthworks
erected by the Israeli Army - which has sealed them into their village
- to try  to pick the fruit, the Jewish settlers from the nearby West
Bank colony of Ravava, shoot at them. And when the Palestinians want
to move the barriers which suround their village, Neta Golan is there
to stand  between them and the Israelis, daring them to shoot a Jew.

On Wednesday night at the end of a day in which she endured threats of
rape, a settler sent her a message wrapped in a full metal jacket. The
bullet from his M16 automatic rifle struck close enough to blast a
piece  of rock into her face. She had been shouting at them with a
loudhailer and demanding that the group of 40 to 60 settler vehicles,
which had  gatheredat the entrance to the village, should leave. The
army stood aside as some of the settlers marched towards Hares
carrying their guns. When they opened fire, Ms Golan kept her nerve.

"That is a crime and I will lodge a complaint with the military courts
and you will go to an army jail," she yelled. "That did the trick,"
she said. "They didn1t like the idea of the stockade, so they got the
settlers to go away. But as soon as I am gone, they'll be back."

Ms Golan's sympathy with the Palestinians and the publicity she had
generated about the military noose around Hares - where at least 25
have been injured and one boy of 14 killed by the Israeli army - has
enraged the authorities. The military said that Hares has  been
sealed off and olive groves close to the main road bulldozed because
stone-throwers have been attacking cars, an accusation that is true.

Ms Golan, 27, a therapist specialising in Chinese medicine, and her
friends are part of a small but growing number of Israeli "lefties"
who  have been horrified by the Palestinian death toll since the
start of the al Aqsa Intifada. Last week they came to the West Bank to
help the villagers of Hares to harvest the olives which form the basis
of their economy, especially as they have been banned from travelling
to their jobs in Israel and elsewhere by the army. "If we were not
here, these people would not be able to go into their fields, it's as
simple as that. If we leave, they'll get shot at straight away,"
Ms Golan said.

Harun Daoud, the Mayor of Hares, which is sandwiched between the
town-size settlement of Ariel, home to 20,000 Jews who settled on the
West Bank in violation of international law, and the religious hamlet
of Ravava, said that the presence of Ms Golan has saved lives and
brought us hope that the Israelis might be able to live with us in
peace one  day.

Gadi Kind, the head of security in Ravava, whose heavily armed men
stood scowling as Ms Golan and her friends joined the Palestinians in
picking olives in a field, said he would be happy to live in peace
with  his neighbours and denied that settlers had attacked anyone from
Hares.

Rabbi David Mivasair, 48, who heads the Or Shalom congregation in
Toronto, Canada, joined Ms Golan in the olive groves, skipping a day's
Talmudic studies in what he said was a gesture of support for the
Palestinians who have lived there for centuries. "They have the same
rights as us, or should do. Without someone  like Neta leading the
way, people like me might not even be aware of what is going on here.

"I don't deny there's some danger (from the army or the settlers) in
being here. But it's vital to stop the steady encroachment of the
settlements on the Palestinian land," he said.
============

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=========================

We Refuse to be Enemies/Arab and Jewish Women in Israel
[Gila Svirsky open letter to friends from Israel]

Friends,



There's been an escalation -- both in the violence and also the voices
for  peace. I will not dwell on the violence, since I know you have
all read about the horrendous Palestinian bombing of the settlers'
schoolbus, and the horrendous shelling of Gaza by the Israeli army,
and other such actions.  But I do want to report on several things
that may otherwise not reach those outside the region.

Isolating Palestinian towns & villages

The Israeli army carries out numerous "acts of occupation" against
Palestinians, from humiliations at border crossings to curfews to
exploding the homes, fields and orchards of families whose sons
engaged in violence. Yesterday, however, a new form of punishment was
inaugurated.  The Israeli army bulldozed and destroyed all access
roads to Palestinian towns and villages in the occupied territories.
And after the roads were destroyed -- the torn asphalt a jumble beside
the trenches -- the army set in place heavy concrete slabs to ensure
that no vehicles could pass. This constitutes the complete isolation
of Palestinian towns and villages -- cutting off access to medical
care, jobs, schools, family, normalcy.  Doesn't Barak fathom the
enormous anger and hatred that this action sows?

About the exploitation of children

The bombing of the settlers' schoolbus was shocking, and so were the
interviews with the mothers of children who were injured.  One mother
of 3 small children who were brutally maimed (all lost limbs)
explained that this was not her children's first brush with death, but
that she is determined to remain. She said that the children sometimes
ask why they must live in Gaza, but now the answer is more clear to
her than ever: "God gave us this land, and we are on a mission on
behalf of all the people of Israel."  Not on my behalf, may I clarify
in the name of many.

Clearly there are some Israeli mothers in a cruel counterpoint to any
Palestinian mothers who send their children to the front lines.

By the way, the settlement of these families yesterday confiscated and
annexed even more land in Gaza. For perspective: The Gaza Strip holds
6,000 Israeli settlers in a sea of 1.2 million Palestinians, meaning
that the Israelis represent only 1/2 percent of the population there
but control 40%  of the land. The remaining tract is second in
population density only to Hong Kong.

We refuse to be enemies

The predominant voice heard in Israel these days is that of the
extreme right wing, and their latest slogan is "Let the IDF win". The
meaning, of course, is to get Barak to unleash the full force of the
army against the Palestinians.

Other voices are also heard, especially that of the women's peace
camp. Women in Black are now standing in vigil at 3 more locations
(Haifa, Nazareth and Acre) in addition to the vigils that never
stopped (Jerusalem, Tel-Aviv, and Nachshon).  More are in formation in
the Beersheba and Kfar Saba-Ra'anana regions.

Yesterday, in an astounding show of unity, Jewish and Palestinian
women -- all Israeli citizens -- held a joint peace action in the Arab
heart of Israel, Wadi Ara.  This region was the location of
demonstrations that became bloodbaths in early October, as the Israeli
police shot at Arab demonstrators to stop the stone-throwing, killing
13.

The demonstration yesterday was a brilliant show of the unity of women
for peace, with some 500 Jewish and Arab women coming from all parts
of Israel. Signs ranged from the demand for equality for Israel's
Arab citizens, to ending police brutality, to stopping the Israeli
occupation across the "Green Line" (1948 border).  My favorite banner
was, "We refuse to be enemies." Many Arabs from the surrounding towns
and villages joined us as the afternoon progressed.  In a vivid
reminder of the inequality of Israel's Arab citizens, the police had
their video cameramen take pictures of all those standing in protest.
Such camerawork is usually absent -- or at least hidden -- from
all-Jewish demonstrations.

After the street protest, the women jammed a hall in Umm al-Fahem, the
focus of the prior unrest.  Outside, the destruction of the previous
month was still starkly visible -- broken street and traffic lights,
debris everywhere.  Weeks later, the traffic and utility companies
still have not fixed these. But inside, the Arab proprietor donated
coffee and baklava to the whole crowd, and we listened to speeches in
Arabic and Hebrew of women committed to equality and a just peace, and
pledging to instill these values in our children.  It was a sweet
moment of reconciliation for us all, and we are determined to nurture
it into a fully blossomed peace.

Special thanks to friends from Brookline who covered some of the costs
of this event.

Shalom from Jerusalem,

Gila Svirsky

==================

Condemn Bus Bombings

Press Release: November 23, 2000

The Middle East Crisis Committee (MECC) and the Palestine Right to
Return Coalition (PRRC, Connecticut Chapter) condemn the attacks on
the buses in the Gaza Strip and in Hadera, Israel. "Random killing of
innocent Israelis is wrong. It's even worse that in the Gaza bombing
several children lost limbs. These murders stain the struggle against
the occupation", said Stanley Heller, Chairperson of the Middle East
Crisis Committee. "Those who set off these bombs should be arrested,
put on trial and punished. That there have been many more attacks on
Palestinian civilians is irrelevant. A policy of an eye for an eye
will leave the world blind."

Heller said, "We also criticize Israeli authorities because to this
date no Israeli soliders or settlers have been arrested for killing
civilians, not the sharpshooters who kill demonstrators from hundreds
of yards away, not even the settlers who killed 18 month old Sarah
Hasan by machine gun fire. We also call for Connecticut political
leaders and leaders of the Jewish community to speak out publicly and
condemn the excessive force used against Palestinian civilans and the
destruction of Muslim mosques in Yaffa and Tiberias. We await their
condemnation of attacks by helicopter gunships and tanks. These
assaults invariably result in deaths of innocent bystanders. People
must condemn all atrocities if there is ever to be a basis for trust
and eventual peace."