First of all, allow me to start with the
definition of ‘normalization,’ at least the one that Palestinian anti-normalization
activists use; normalization is the participation in, or joint work with, any
Israeli in a field other than politics, which might imply that the relation
between the Palestinian and the Israeli is normal. i.e. myself and an Israeli
write a book about fashion. Normalization is also
when Palestinians and Israelis meet "voluntarily" to discuss the Palestinian-Israeli
conflict without the Israeli participant’s recognition of the Palestinian’s
rights to return and self-determination. i.e. Well, all those programs we have
been protesting!
"Voluntarily" being highlighted in
the previous paragraph brings me to my second point. My birth
certificate has the IDF civil administration logo on the top, and it’s written
in Hebrew and Arabic, same as my ID card. Do you call this normalization? If
you do, allow me to remind you that in the case of occupation, the occupier
takes the responsibility of administrating the occupied nation’s needs. That
includes issuing ID cards, drivers licenses…etc. In other words, we, the Palestinians
living in the West Bank, Gaza, Jerusalem and in ‘48, don’t cooperate with the
Israeli occupiers because we choose to, but because we have to. Or, do you want
to lose your Jerusalem ID because you didn't renew it on time?
Beside Mr. Aziz’s ignorance in the definition of normalization,
he has obviously never stepped foot in any of the weekly protests across the West
Bank, such as the one in Nabi Saleh. Over the last 2 years, Israeli activists
who recognize the Palestinian's rights to return and self-determination joined Palestinians in
the field against their government’s oppression. They jump in
front of the soldiers to protect Palestinians from getting arrested,
and if they are arrested, they provide the needed legal aid to
the detainees and their families. Many of those activists challenged
their loved ones, their families, and their whole world to protest on our side.
Speaking of that, allow me to quote my
friend’s sarcastic comment in Nabi Saleh last Friday, in which she referred
to Mr. Aziz Abu Sarah’s article.
“I did something shockingly bad
today, I called an Israeli activist "Habibti" after she swore she
wouldn't sign release papers, in the case we got arrested, until we both get
released. Aziz Abu Sarah, I have joined your ranks of Normalization.”
Finally, the Freedom Riders, I knew this would
happen, and this is why many of the anti-normalization activists protested the
action, as we were almost sure it would be misused, or at least misunderstood
by world media. If you read the coverage of the action, you would see it. They ignored
the original press release that explained why those activists were carrying out
the action, and concentrated on what serves their propaganda. So,
please, spare some time and read the press release again. You can also find my take onthe Freedom Rides actions right after it.
In the end, I have Israeli friends, they are good
people, but the moment they reenlist in the army, or question my people’s
rights to return and self-determination, they are out of my life.
As the oppressor, Israelis hold more
responsibilities than the oppressed Palestinians.
The Palestinian-Israeli conflict is a case of the
oppressed against their oppressor, just a reminder in case you forgot.
For four years Yasin Abu Saleh el-Rifai and his wife Iman are fighting an almost doomed battle to save their land. The plot has belonged to his family, the el-Rifai family, for generations and it is his land, by inheritance. His grandfather's tomb is situated there too. The impressive structure of the tomb still stands, but the settlers have desecrated it, removing the bones from the tomb and destroyed the any remains in order to eliminate the evidence. Unfortunately for him, and for many other residents of Anata, some of them members of his family, an Israeli settlement by the name of Anatot (aka Almon) was built on their land in 1982. This settlement has grown over the years and today its fenced-off area includes hundreds of acres of private, taboo-registered Palestinian land, which the Palestinian owners cannot access.
A few words about this settlement: the settlers of Anatot are some of the worst people. It is a secular, extreme right-wing settlement of police officers and army officers, some of them retired. So the law is with them…and far away from the public eye they do what they want, a constant rampage. Sicilian Mafia in Israel of 2011. Netanyahu's personal driver is also a resident of Anatot.
El-Rifai's story is somewhat different from the story of the other Palestinian landowners. He and his wife, an Israeli citizen, formerly Jewish with a "blue" ID are allowed to enter the settlement and they are not denied access to the land. This is not the case for the other landowners, who are not Israeli citizens, and are therefore required to conduct impossible coordination procedures in order to reach their land and cultivate it.
Their 'blue' ID cards have not spared el-Rifai and his wife a great deal of agony. In recent years Anatot's settlers have been doing all they can to try to expel them from their land. The land that appears to be barren in the clip was once full of olive trees. Settlers ran over el-Rifai's wife with a mini-tractor, the two were beaten on several occasions, requiring hospitalization. Yasin was also stabbed. Their share of misery has also included the uprooting of all fruit trees on the plot, destruction of agricultural equipment, contamination of the water well by throwing carcasses and garbage into it, burning the cave which is located within the confines of the plot, constant uprooting of any newly-planted trees, threats against the two as well as physical assaults on them. Countless complaints have been submitted to the police, but nothing has been done to stop the abuse. El-Rifai and his wife have not given up, and against all odds they are trying to hold on to their land. Yasin, desperate to find some support, contact activists through the Internet a few months ago.
b. Activist Tal's account:
On Friday, a group of Israeli activists from various groups came down to sit with Yasin on his land, drink coffee, eat something, plant a few symbolic trees, and raise a Palestinian flag on his plot. We were certainly not looking for trouble. We were a small group, women and elderly people among us.
As we were sitting there, eating and laughing, Yasin received a call on his mobile phone, and the settlement's security officer threatened him that "people want to come up and beat you to a pulp, if that's what you want, keep the flag there". The phone call was recorded. You can listen to it here:
Afterwards, seven police and military vehicles appeared on the main road. They stood there for half an hour. Then a few civilian (privately-owned) cars drove up to them, and there seemed to be an exchange going on. All of a sudden, all the military vehicles disappeared, except for one police car, and within minutes tens of private cars gathered on the road. Around 50 people came out of these cars, led by an army officer and a border police, who were not trying too hard to stop them...The rest is history. They came up to us, cursed us, beat us with stoned and clubs and iron rods, plundered. Yasin was thrown to the ground, his head cracked open with an audible bang (he's not a young man, and he suffers from a heart condition and diabetes). He lay motionless on the ground for a few minutes, his wife holding his head and trying to stop the bleeding. We formed a protective ring around him, so that the bloodthirsty settlers don't reach him. At that time I thought he was dead. I yelled "get an ambulance", but no one paid attention. Miri (an activist) saw another activist, Edo, being beaten right next to a police officer, the settlers taking his camera. The officer was speaking on his phone. She approached him and said: "They stole Edo's camera and now they are hitting him!". The officer's nonchalant response was "you're interrupting my conversation". I stood there trying to prevent the attackers from reaching Yasin. A police officer came and took me away saying he's doing it to protect me. None of the officers protected Yasin. None of the attackers were pushed back or detained. Three of us were arrested on false charges and released later that evening because there was no case against them. The settlers chased us with their cars, causing damage to our cars, all the way up to West Jerusalem. Police officers who drove along, escorting us, did not think something had to be done about that. An entire spectrum of Anatot settlers, children, youths, women, the young and the elderly participated in the attempted lynching. No one would have cared if we had been killed there. Only the police who would have had to account for this…
c. Activist Guy's account:
Three months ago, we, Taayush activists, received an appeal from the couple. They were almost desperate and they asked for our help. We came down there, another activist and I, and we met a lovely couple, whose sole request was not to be driven off their land and not to suffer physical abuse and damage to property.
Due to various constraints, it was difficult for us to help at the time, but we did try to enlist various activists and groups. In recent weeks, activists have come down a few times and planted new trees, but each time, after a short while el-Rifai found them uprooted.
Today, Friday 30.9.11, a few of us decided to come and visit the couple. We numbered around 15 people. we brought work tools with us, such as hoes. Needless to say, we were welcomed with open arms and much love.
A short time after our arrival, we saw the settlement's security vehicle stop on the main road. It seemed that the security officer didn't like our presence there and called the police. A Border police team arrived, but they didn't intervene or interfere. Gradually, more and more settlers gathered on the main road, approximately 200 Meters in front of the hill where we were working. By noon, more than 20 settler cars could be spotted there. Then we saw two of them going up towards us, and I immediately called the police and alerted them to the danger. Below us, on the main road, we were able to see a few police cars, but they didn't prevent the two settlers from approaching us. When they came near us, they cursed and threatened us. Other settlers began to go up the hill towards us, dozens of them...
I called the police again, I warned them that bloodshed was imminent, I begged them to send the policemen who were present uphill, towards us, but to no avail. The settlers came up to us, and attacked us. This was simply an attempted lynching. I was punched a few times, knocked down to the ground, and when managed to lift myself up, I saw a border police officer. I ran to him and begged him to protect me, to save me, I practically hung onto him. But they just kept hitting, not heeding his calls to step back. They broke one of the cameras which I was holding, snatching it and throwing it to the ground and trampling over it. More punches and I am screaming and seeing the end. Again, I find myself on the ground, again lifting myself up and starting to flee, my glasses are gone and I don't know where I'm running, and I do see the settlers approaching me, and screaming at me. I ran towards the road and saw a police officer. Weeping and distraught, I asked him to save me.
He took me to the car and somehow I along with another activist managed to escape and exit the settlement.
But what about the rest?
They continued to be beaten, and the attempted lynching went on. Three of us are still at the hospital, one with a head injury, and I came out of all this, miraculously, with just one arm broken and lots of bruises.
for more data:
1. A preliminary report with two clips and photos was published on Mondoweiss yesterday:
This Friday me and 3 other were detained at Attara checkpoint near the city of Ramallah.
As soon as the small bus reached the checkpoint, the soldiers asked for our IDs, and to where we were heading, we said BaitReema -A village near NabiSaleh-, yes we lied to the soldiers, but they wont let us pass if they knew we are going to NabiSaleh anyway, and I didn't thought they will search my back bag.
The soldiers asked us to step down, searching all of our bags, when they found my gas mask the soldier acted as a kid who just found the right excuse to beat the kid next door. He asked us all to get into the bus. Suddenly a soldier came back from the jeep asking the girl in the front seat, "Ramadan?" she said "No", yet they asked her to step down. this is when my friend, the actual holder of the ID and the name "Ramadan" spoke up, "this is my ID" the soldier asked her to step down, tied her hand, and asked her to step a side and set on the ground, which she refused to obey. She stood there, smiled and told me "well, I am getting arrested in the way to Nablus, not in NabiSaleh, Ironic!".
The soldiers then took her inside the bunker, before they take her out again blind folded, asked her to set, the other girl in the bus, asked the soldier if she can set to comfort her.
Soon, the commanding officer came with a big jeep usually used to carry soldier and occasionally arrested Palestinian, the officer, talked with the checkpoint officer for a while before he came to us, searched our bags(again). I asked him about my friend, he replied "Tell your friend to find something else to do."
Few second later, they took "Ramadan" into the jeep and drove away, we stood there, "now what?" we asked the officer, he replied with a words we will hear all day "set and wait, then we decide, you either go home, or go away." soldiers then let the Bus driver and 2 other passenger leave. only back to Ramallah, leaving me and 2 other guys and a girl behind, to have the longest, unwanted sun bath.
The soldier came 15 minutes later, with a bottle of water, he said "Take this drink water, if you want more, just ask." it was an Israeli bottled water so we refused to drink it -I admit, I had a sip or 2 at first-. We started asking the passing car to give us water if they have any, we got 2 bottle -one of which was nice and cold- before the soldiers forbidden us from interacting with people, or making phone calls.
The hours passed fast, and slow, we were getting more and more tired, some were panicking as time pass, others were just getting angrier, and I was getting more and more annoyed, by 2:30 we couldn't resist the need for water, so we turned to the soldiers asking for water, the soldier pointed to the bottle "you still have water", "it's hot, it's undrinkable", "you can make tea!! ha ha". yaa we got the funny one.
The soldiers brought us more water, refilling the bottle without asking for more "no, they weren't being nice, but the IDF will look bad if we died from dehydration."
PS: "they refilled it with tap water, so yaa, we didn't drink Israeli water after all"
Around 3:00PM the unit changed, different soldiers showed up, we tried to talk to a very American looking soldier (he is not American tho), asking what's going on, and when they are going to let us go, we talked for a while although he repeated the same old recorded statements. "you are suspect of attempting to enter a closed military zone, we are keeping you until they decide what they are going to do to you"
around 3:30 he and another soldier came to us, "Nimer!?" I raised my hand, and he handed me my ID, you can go back to Ramallah now, all of you.
As we walked away, and after I called couple of my friend, I got a call from "Ramadan" telling me, they let her go, and she is going to meet us in Ramallah, it was a nice surprise, a perfect end for a long day, specially letting her go, answered a lot of questions that were running in my mind all day long.
In the end, I must introduce you to the people who detained us, please meet Alexandroni Brigade (the 3ed brigades in the IDF).
This Brigade is a suspect of committing mass murder against Arab-Palestinian during the 1948 war(Nakba) in the village of Tantura
their is nothing much about this brigade as the rest brigade of the IDF, but you can read the few Wikipedia offer click here
Israeli activist from "Anarchist against the wall group" argue with a group of Israeli army soldiers advancing towered the village of Bilin during the weekly Friday protest.
