I decided to spend some time in the West Bank - mainly because I wanted to see and know more about Palestinian issues and actually see the 'security wall' myself. I felt like it was important to try and break down the fear of travelling in the West Bank, which is actually really safe to travel now and to also contribute to the terribly suffering tourism industry in and around Bethlehem. As the bus 21 pulled away from Jeruselem, headed for perhaps the holiest city for Christians on the planet, Bethlehem, the 'types' of people getting both on and off the bus were notable.. those who wore the kippah and those who did not .. but all who clearlly had money/ business men, yep, pretty much all men. So .. bus 21 has a special permit to enter the West Bank without too much formality - the bus stopped just inside the 'security wall' .. now this 'security wall' I will now refer to as the Apartheid Wall. The Apartheid Wall started being constructed by Israelis in 2002 in the West Bank to facilitate control over economy, growth, resources, land and people. In 2004 the International Court of Justice in Hague ruled that the wall was illegal and that all construction should cease immediatly and any damaged caused by the wall should be repaired and restored. Defiantly, Israel contines to build the wall. The Apartheid Wall is monitored 24 hours a day by military, in some parts it is a 8 metre high concrete wall (the Berlin wall was only 4 metres), in other parts it is electric fencing or rolls and rolls of barbed wire. At the beginning of 2009, 486 KILOMETRES of the wall had already been built out of a proposed 760 KILOMETRES... yes, it circles the entire area. To build this wall, Israel has stolen Palestinian land (around 15% belonging to Palestine) ... They have seperated villages, cut off water and resource supplies and orchids .. In Bethlehem alone 16,000 acres of land has been stolen by Israelis for the purposes of military control and to construct this Palestinian prison. At the beginning of 2009 there were 93 military check points and 533 road blocks seperating Israel to Palestinian areas - they can stop and search any Palestian person at any time, any place. Between 2002 and 2006 112 people died as a result of these check points, from being held up or denied access at certain areas where they needed to get urgent medical attention, 35 women have given birth to still born babies at check points in the past 4 years. Palestinians living in Bethlehem are not allowed to leave Bethlehem - they are simply, not allowed to visit nearby Jeruselem, a place which is exceptionally holy to Muslims - they are not allowed to pray in their mosques or visit family who live outside of the wall. Only very few people have Jeruselem I.D cards, which allows them to leave the confines of the wall - nearlly all women and young people are denied the right to have this I.D card. Since 1967, nearlly 700,000 Palestinians have been arrested and imprisoned for resisting or protesting against their treatment ... they are political prisoners. Israel enforces 'administrative detention' which means that any person (adult or child) suspected of being in violation of Israel's imposed laws can be imprisoned for a period of up to 6 months without trial OR charge, this 6 month period can be renewed indefinitely. There are currently 11,000 Palestinians imprisoned and around 9000 of them are identifed as political prisoners ... 300 of these are children. Through its Military occupation, Israel holds a HUGE amount of economic power of the Palestinians - they tax ALL goods that entre and leave the West Bank and Gaza - this in the context of the face that unemployment numbers in the West Bank are at 30% and in Gaza there is an 80% unemployment rate, makes for even more burden and hardship in these areas. Israel has stolen a huge amount of Palestinian land to build industrial centres and factories, where Palestinians earn around 1700 NIS a month, whereas Jewish Israelis working in the same factories making the same things earn around 7000NIS a month, with the minimum wage set at 5000NIS within all Jewish Israeli areas - doing the EXACT same jobs. One thing that is very interesting is the exact location of the wall - if you look out over the wall, its VERY obvious that Israel have added little bits of land here and there to capture as much water as possible - in many spots the prison walls trace the outside of water catchments, damns, rivers and other water ways - its sooo obvious and they havent even tried to hide the fact that they are stealing water wherever possible. A side note - Israel has been at war with Syria, Jordan and Lebanon for YEARS over stealing land which increases their water supply - its really interesting and blatantly obvious that all of the land they have stolen from other countries and cultures has been to claim as much prosperous land and water catchments as possible.
Today, there are 7.2 MILLION palestinian refugees worldwide - a third of these live in 58 refugee camps scattered across the middle east.
The first Palestinian refugees were those ethnically cleansed by Zionist Malitia and the Israeli Military in 1947/1948. Initially, the Palestinians didnt move far away, most of them taking an overnight bag and their house keys, expecting to return quickly. When many did return they were turned away, many killed. In December, 1949 the United Nations passed a resolutation that guaranteed Palestinians the right to return to their homes and their land. Not only have Israel decided not to honour this right, but they have stolen further land and made it only accessible to Jewish people. Get this ... ISRAEL HAVE PASSED LAWS THAT PROHIBIT JEWISH PEOPLE SELLING ANY LAND TO ARABS (Palestinians/Muslims), AND ANOTHER LAW PASSED THAT ALLOWS ANY JEW ON THE PLANET TO SETTLE IN ISRAEL ... literally, ANY JEWISH PERSON on the planet can settle in Israel with no question. In fact, there is an initiative called "Birth Right" whereby American tax payers pay for all Jewish boys to spend 2 weeks in Israel to see their 'birth right' .. their 'PROMISED LAND" by fucking Moses ... and the governement pay for this because they are so far up the murdering theiving Israeli governments ass that this seemed like a fair and reasonable idea. Israel is not sublty trying to fill Israel and Palestinian areas with as many Jewish people as they can, the international borders are open to any Jewish person in the world to live, study, earn money, buy as much land as they can afford and never EVER sell to an Arab Muslim Palestinian. If you have live in a Palestinian area but one of these fucked up I.D cards that allows you to visit Israeli areas and actually leave the confines of the wall, if you marry a person who does not have this pass, your spouse cannot leave the wall or the Palestinian area ... however .. if you are a Jewish-Israeli you can bring ur spouse from anywhere in the world to live anywhere within Israel/Palestine ... unless you have married a Palestinian.
In 1967, the same policy of mass-eviction was executed and some 300,000 Palestinians living in the West Bank and the Gaza were evacuated from their homes and made refugees. One third of these were already refugees from 1948 and the other 2 thirds became refugees for the first time.
Israel, the 4th most powerful military in the world, has launched 8 massive attacks against Palestinians, from 1948 to 2008/2009. The most recent one started December 2008, where Israel massacred over 1400 civilian Palestinians in Gaza, over one third of them were children. 5000 people were injured and homes, schools, water and power sources were cut and destroyed.
So .. how did this happen?? Well .. again .. we can thank the British. Initially, Jews in Europe were treated terribly, like most minorities. In response, a small group formed who wanted to create a state for only Jewish people to live. This turned into the ideology of Zionism (google it if ineterested), which was opposed by many Jews and continues to be opposed by many today. The Zionists considered many options and decided on Palestinian areas as their prefered choice and the Native population be driven out. Cue Britain - who know how to drive out Indigenous peoples better than any other empire on the planet. During World War I, Britain first promised independence to Arab lands under the Ottoman Empire in return for their support in defeating the Turks, which the Arabs did. In 1916, only 2 years after making this promise, France and Britain secretly signed the psykes-picot agreement diving up all the Arab lands between themselves. In 1917, the British then Balfour Declaration promising Palestine to the Zionists (the Jewish extremists). At the end of the war, Britian completely ignored their commitment to Arab independence, and they took complete control of Jordan and Iraq and then 'taught' and facilitated the Zionists take over of Palestine. In 1947, the U.N proposed partitioning Palestine between the Zionists and the Arabs, with 58% going to the Zionists who made up on 31% of the population. The Arabs agreed. However, the Zionists decided this wasnt enough and they began ethinically cleansing the Palestinians... and with Palestines 4800 poorly armed troops going up against the Zionsists 60000 strong military force, they lost and the Zionists claimed the state of Israel on 78% of Palestinian land.
Palestinians are the LARGEST AND LONGEST ENDURING REFUGEE POPULATION IN THE WORLD..... and we support America who supports Israel without question, reason or thought.... Israel is supported politically, economically, socially and legally (and ILLEGALLY) by America .. and the world says this is ok. It is O.K to steal land, to murder, imprison and abuse people, it is ok to steal resources with machine guns from people throwing rocks at you, it is ok to build a wall around land which is not yours to imprison an entire race of people. It is ok to break internation law time and time again, it is ok to ignore the Geneva convention, it is ok to violate almost every human right and it is ok to take whatever you like at ANY cost. And the reason this is ok?? Because the Bible promised the land to the Jews .. the 'promised land' .. so the sense of entitlement and right to land is immense .... and so people are killed, murderd and displaced. So thank you to the Bible, thank you to America and a huge thank you to the British and the Europeans for teaching Jewish Israelis how to take land .. youre the best at it after all.
The amount of stories I have of the people I met in the Palestinain areas who have not been allowed to leave Bethlehem for over 6 years since the wal want up, the people I met who were now American citizens with Palestinian heritage who cannot even fly into Israel to see family on their American passports, because they are Palestinian and not allowed outside of Palestinian areas REGARDLESS of their current citizenship .. the stories are numerous and revolting... they are heart wrenching and stomach turning ... they are sad, they are frustrating .. and this is happening now ... right now, as we sip our coffees, eat our sunday roasts, watch the L Word and read The Age, its happening as we save for our holidays to anywhere in the world we want to visit without question, its happening as we water our gardens on land we own or pay for, its happening as we go to work without fear of being stopped, its happening as we choose to give birth in hospitals, at home, in water or in birth centres and not at check points or military run hospitals .. its happening as we watch American T.V and purchase Israeli made products... as we contribute without even know it to an economy based on utter and filthy greed.
Pics - most are self explanatory shots taken of the prison walls. read the graffiti carefully. its moving. The last 4 shots are of the sights - the 2 last are from the birth place of Jesus, the exact location apparantly. The 2 before that are taken from the church called the Church of the Milk Grotto, which is the place where Mary brought Jesus to breast feed him after he was born because it was a safe spot where King Herod couldnt find him to kill him ... long story, read the bible if interested! The Church was a beautiful monument to breast feeding .. really beautiful actually.
No comments:
Post a Comment