The camp in the eyes of an Israeli activist

By Oren Medicks

Perhaps you need to be an Israeli, in order to fully appreciate the surreal dimension of the following situation: A group of Israelis, Palestinians and International peace activists, living together in an olive grove deep inside Palestinian territory - deep inside “Intifada Land’.

Palestinians and Israelis searching together for fire wood at night, preparing information boards during the day. Discussing politics, and possible ways of action.

At night, fearing together, but not of each other – but of a possible raid by the Israeli army. No wall or fence coming between us.

This is the daily routine In Mas’ha.

The Mas’ha protest camp against the wall was initiated three months ago by Nazeeh Shalabi, a farmer from the Palestinian village of Mas’ha, who received a confiscation order for part of his land. The land was to be confiscated in order to build the separation wall on it. The rest of his land is to be lost behind the wall or fence, as he would no longer have access to his olive grove. The separation fence is marketed to the Israeli public, and in fact to the entire world, as a reasonable security measures – meant to separate Palestinians from Israelis, but in reality, the only separation it offers – is between Palestinians and their land. Till now, hundreds of thousands of fertile land were lost behind this complex set of barriers, along with some 30 water wells. 35km of water installation have been ruined. 83,000 olive trees have been uprooted and 11,000 dunams of land razed.

Every year the Palestinians will lose some 4 million cubic meters of water.

This, too, will be the fate of Mas’ha, which stands to lose nearly 98% of it’s land, and almost all of it’s commercial life, since the wall will block the main road leading into the village, leaving only one road out, leading East.

As people who live in free states, our rights and property protected, moving freely from one place to the other - it is not easy to imagine the terrible feeling of impotence, frustration and loss. Of being absolutely powerless in the face of a force who can play with your life at will, who actually wants you gone from your land. Demonstrations were futile.

Appeals to the court of law, useless, as Israeli courts bow to the word ‘security’. Frustration led Nazeeh to erect a protest tent on his land – not to stop the bulldozers, there was no hope for that, but to let the world know. And the world came to see. Daily visits of media, officials and many peace activists, turned the Mas’ha camp into a center of communication and information about the wall.

Since it has started, the camp was forced to move twice. At the end of May the advancing anti tank trenches and barbed wire prevented us from bringing water and food to the camp. The second move was decided upon 10 days ago, when Hani A’amer, another farmer from Mas’ha, asked us for help. Under settlers pressure,the path of the wall was planned to pass one meter from his door step, cutting him off completely from the rest of the village. Hani’s home would be locked between the separation fence, on one side, and the fence of the Elkana settlement on the other. Not only would he lose his animal shed and entire yard - According to the army’s plan, Hani, his wife and 14 children will not be able to leave their home. Three times a day, they will be let out through a special gate in the fence.

We decided to move the camp to Hani A’amer’s yard and invite people to see this monstrous plan with their own eyes.

It is clear why Nazeeh is doing all in his power to struggle against the wall that will rob him and his village of their livelihood, but why would Israelis join him?

There are several layers to the answer:

More and more Israelis realize that the wall represents just another means of deepening the occupation, this time under the pretext of security.

In fact, the wall is a means of silent ethnic cleansing, because life in these prisons will be unbearable, driving Palestinians out. As an example, About 7,000 out of 40,000 residents of Qalqilyia were already forced to leave their homes.

On a deeper level, the wall represents a state of mind that views the Israeli existence in the region as “A villa in the jungle” as Ehud Barak, the former Israeli prime minister has put it. This mentality dictates constant suspicion, and hostility and in turn, It only evokes more frustration, bitterness and violence on the Palestinian side. On a deeper level still, The wall is a new, terrible version of the hated Jewish Ghetto. Only this time it is us, the Jews, who are building the Ghettos, and locking another people in it. By so doing, we are creating an internal ghetto for ourselves. After 2000 years of exclusion – willful or forced, the young Israeli state, that vowed to create a “New Jew”, independent, brave and free – has returned to the old Ghetto mentality.

For many young Israelis, The policy that creates such fences and walls is unacceptable. It will close the door on what might be the last chance for decades, to start a process of true, deep reconciliation with the Palestinians. We live here, in the Middle East. We are not “A Western stronghold against oriental barbarism” as was suggested by the fathers of the Zionist movement.

The young Israeli generation realizes that the world has changed. They saw the Berlin wall come down. They know that security behind walls is illusionary. Spending some time together in the camp, has proven to us all that real security lies in the acceptance of one another as equals, in respecting each other’s right to live a full, free life. It is interesting to note, at this point, that when we were arrested, almost half of us asked for vegetarian food in the police station. This means that for many of us, the struggle is not only ‘horizontal’, to topple walls and barriers between peoples and nations, creating a world which speaks one language – the language of equal rights and freedom, but also ‘vertical’ – unifying and fusing many ideas and values into a wholesome picture of the world. An inclusive picture, rather than an exclusive one. By contrast, many Israelis favor the wall for the exact same reason, but reversed. They cannot afford to really see the Palestinians, because by doing so, they will also be forced to see the suffering, humiliation and pain which they themselves caused the Palestinians during 100 years of colonization.

In short, They rather have a wall in front of them, than a mirror. Preventing human contact ‘helps’ not only in dealing with the past, but also in preparing a dreadful future, because it is only if the Palestinians are ‘those behind the wall’ that they can be demonized, stripped from their human nature, and eventually disappear without our conscience shrieking in pain.

Jewish history knows this only too well.

This is why we joined the people of Mas’ha in the protest camp.

Several days after we erected the tent in Hani A’amer’s yard, we received a message that the bulldozers will cut through the yard early the next morning. This time, they were in for a surprise. About 70 activists – Palestinians, Internationals and Israelis waited for them, along with considerable media representatives. After several hours trying to raze the yard, the bulldozers backed off. We new our success will be short-lived, so at night, we begged Nazeeh to leave the camp, because we knew the army will soon return in full force. Nazeeh refused, saying that he will not go home, leaving people who were with him for 4 months, to struggle alone.

Two days later, at 6:30 AM, about 150 soldiers stormed the camp and brutally dragged all 45 activists that were present across the dirt, rocks and asphalt road into a bus that took us to the Ariel settlement police station, where we were detained, interrogated and some arrested. The next day, another group of 24 Israeli activists tried to stop the bulldozers, and were arrested in the same manner.

Our fears for Nazeeh were justified. While we were released, he was the only one charged for entering a closed military zone, and disobeying an army order.

His trial will take place on the 21st. of October. Our struggle against the wall will continue.

We, Israelis, Palestinians and Internationals, will not allow the wall to separate us. We will keep the Mas’ha camp alive till the world helps us put an end to this shame, which turns an entire people, in fact two peoples, into prisoners.

As Israelis, we realize that not only the Palestinians are losing their freedom – we are losing ours as well, because as prisoner and jailor, we are shackled together.

The Israeli people will not be able to enjoy freedom, as long as our neighbors, The Palestinian people, are chained to us and denied their rights and freedom.