[Marxism] An unlikely ally for Palestinians

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

(This article mentions our friend Reuven Kaminer who was a major 
influence on the subject.)

NY Times, June 28, 2009
Unlikely Ally for Residents of West Bank
By ETHAN BRONNER

SAFA, West Bank — Ezra Nawi was in his element. Behind the wheel of his 
well-worn jeep one recent Saturday morning, working two cellphones in 
Arabic as he bounded through the terraced hills and hardscrabble 
villages near Hebron, he was greeted warmly by Palestinians near and far.

Watching him call for an ambulance for a resident and check on the 
progress of a Palestinian school being built without an Israeli permit, 
you might have thought him a clan chief. Then noticing the two Israeli 
Army jeeps trailing him, you might have pegged him as an Israeli 
occupation official handling Palestinian matters.

But Mr. Nawi is neither. It is perhaps best to think of him as the Robin 
Hood of the South Hebron hills, an Israeli Jew helping poor locals who 
love him, and thwarting settlers and soldiers who view him with 
contempt. Those army jeeps were not watching over him. They were 
stalking him.

Since the Israeli left lost so much popular appeal after the violent 
Palestinian uprising of 2000 and the Hamas electoral victory three years 
ago, its activists tend to be a rarefied bunch — professors of Latin or 
Sanskrit, and translators of medieval poetry. Mr. Nawi, however, is a 
plumber. And unlike the intellectuals of European origin with whom he 
spends most Saturdays, he is from an Iraqi Jewish family.

“My mother gave birth to me in Jerusalem when she was 14,” said Mr. 
Nawi, who is 57 and one of five siblings. “So my grandmother raised me. 
And she spoke to me in Arabic.”

His family has trouble understanding his priorities. His mother says she 
thinks he is wasting his time. And many Israelis, when told of his work, 
wonder why he is not helping his own. Mr. Nawi has an answer.

“I don’t consider my work political,” he said between phone calls as he 
drove. “I don’t have a solution to this dispute. I just know that what 
is going on here is wrong. This is not about ideology. It is about decency.”

For his activist colleagues, Mr. Nawi’s instinctual connection to the 
Palestinians is valuable.

“Ezra knows Palestinians better than any of us,” said Amiel Vardi, a 
professor who works closely with him. “This is not only because of the 
language, but because he gains their confidence the minute he starts 
talking with them. He has all sorts of intuitions as to what should be 
done, what are the internal relations — things we hardly ever notice.”

The difficulties of Palestinian life in the West Bank have been well 
documented: Israeli military checkpoints, a rising separation barrier 
and Israeli settlers. But in this area, the problems are more acute. The 
Palestinians, many of them Bedouin, are exceptionally poor, and the land 
they bought decades ago is under threat by a group of unusually 
aggressive local settlers. The settlers have been filmed beating up 
Palestinians. Settlers have been killed by Palestinians. But Mr. Nawi 
said that the law inevitably sided with the Israelis, and that 
occupation meant there could be no equity.

“The settlers keep the Palestinian farmers from their land by harassing 
them, and then after several years they say the land has not been farmed 
so by law it is no longer theirs,” Mr. Nawi said. “We are only here to 
stop that from happening.”

That is not the view of the settlers.

“He is a troublemaker,” asserted Yehoshua Mor-Yosef, a spokesman for 
Israeli settler communities in the area. “It’s true that from time to 
time there is a problem of some settlers coming out of their settlements 
to cause problems. But people like Nawi don’t want a solution. Their 
whole aim is to cause trouble.”

True or not, Mr. Nawi is now in trouble. Having spent several short 
stints in jail for his activism over the years, he now faces the 
prospect of a long one. He is due to be sentenced Wednesday for 
assaulting an Israeli policeman two years ago during a confrontation 
over an attempt to demolish Palestinians’ shacks on disputed land on the 
West Bank. The policeman said Mr. Nawi struck him during that encounter. 
Mr. Nawi denied it, but in March a judge convicted him.

What is left of the Israeli left is rallying around him, arguing that 
Mr. Nawi is a known pacifist who would not have raised his hand against 
anyone.

“Since I’ve known the man for decades and seen him in action in many 
extreme situations, I’m certain that the charge is untrue,” David 
Shulman, a Hebrew University professor and peace activist, wrote in the 
newspaper Haaretz. Of Mr. Nawi, he added, “He is a man committed, in 
every fiber of his being, to nonviolent protest against the inequities 
of the occupation.”

Mr. Nawi attributes his activism to two things: as a teenager, his 
family lived next door to the leader of Israel’s Communist Party, Reuven 
Kaminer, who influenced him. And he is gay.

“Being gay has made me understand what it is like to be a despised 
minority,” Mr. Nawi said.

Several years ago, he had a relationship with a Palestinian from the 
West Bank and ended up being convicted on charges of allowing his 
companion to live illegally in Israel. His companion was jailed for months.

Mr. Nawi said harassment against him had come in many forms. Settlers 
shout vicious antigay epithets. His plumbing business has been audited, 
and he was handed a huge tax bill that he said he did not deserve. He is 
certain that his phone calls are monitored. And those army jeeps are 
never far behind.

He is not optimistic about his coming sentencing, although he is 
planning an appeal. And he says the Israeli news media have lost 
interest in the work he and his fellow activists do. But he does not stop.

“I’m here to change reality,” he said. “The only Israelis these people 
know are settlers and soldiers. Through me they know a different 
Israeli. And I’ll keep coming until I know that the farmers here can 
work their fields.”


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