Witness for the Defenseless
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Published by Americans for The Link Middle East Understanding, Inc. Volume 40, Issue 3 Link Archives: www.ameu.org August-September 2007 BY ANNA BALTZER E very time I think I have understood the Is- rael/Palestine conflict, something will remind me how much more I have to learn. My first break- through came during a trip to southern Lebanon, where for the first time I heard a narrative about the state of Israel altogether different from the one I had learned growing up as a Jewish American. My grandmother, who had fled Europe and lost most of her family in the Nazi Holocaust, had always spoken of Israel as a tiny victimized country that (Continued on page 2.) Anna Baltzer is the author of Witness in Palestine: Journal of a Jew- ish American Woman in the Occupied Territories. —Photo by Bud Hudson The Link Page 2 AMEU Board (Continued from Page 1.) of Directors simply wanted to live in peace but couldn’t Jane Adas (Vice President) because of its aggressive, Jew-hating Arab neighbors. Then, while traveling through the Hugh D. Auchincloss, Jr. I first met Anna Baltzer in Middle East, I was taken in by a family of Elizabeth D. Barlow a Congregational church in Palestinian refugees who told me their story Edward Dillon Old Lyme, CT. The high- back pews were filled mostly of being violently expelled from their home- John Goelet with older people; a few in land, never allowed to return. They told me Richard Hobson the balcony leaned over the stories of past and present military attacks, Anne R. Joyce rail to see and hear her. colonization, house demolitions, imprison- Hon. Robert V. Keeley ment without trial, torture, and government- The questions following Kendall Landis (Treasurer) sponsored assassination. her talk were polite, except At first, I didn’t believe them. Robert L. Norberg (President) for one woman in the bal- Hon. Edward L. Peck cony who lashed out at her So I did my own research, and soon I Lachlan Reed for criticizing Israel. realized that the stories of my friends in Donald L. Snook Lebanon were true. I realized that it was After the talk, in a meeting Rosemarie Sunderland largely Israel’s aggressive actions and poli- room behind the sanctuary, cies—and U.S. unconditional financial sup- James M. Wall she stood at a card table port for those actions and policies—that were with copies of her book and precluding a just peace in the region. I felt AMEU National DVDs of her presentation. responsible for the role my tax dollars and Council Several came up to pur- government were playing in the violations of Hon. James E. Akins chase them or just to speak international law and human rights, and I Isabelle Bacon with her. felt doubly responsible as a Jewish American, William R. Chandler In this issue of The Link since Israel’s abuses were being carried out David S. Dodge Anna writes about many of in the name of Jews everywhere. Paul Findley the things she spoke of that Determined to see the situation for my- Dr. Cornelius B. Houk day: her experiences in oc- self, I traveled to Palestine in late 2003 as a O. Kelly Ingram cupied Palestine, the ques- volunteer with the International Women’s Moorhead Kennedy tions most frequently put to Peace Service (IWPS), a grassroots solidarity her as she crisscrosses Ann Kerr organization dedicated to documenting and America, and, yes, how she Mary Norton nonviolently intervening in human rights Marie Petersen responds to her critics, like the woman in the balcony. abuses in the West Bank, and to supporting Don W. Wagner Palestinian-led nonviolent resistance to the Miriam Ward, RSM Anna’s presentation that Occupation. day was one of the most In spite of my research, nothing could Executive Director engaging and effective I have prepared me for witnessing firsthand John F. Mahoney have ever seen. Her DVD the injustices that characterize Israeli rule in version of it is available from the West Bank, including the expansion of our video catalog on page Jewish-only colonies on Palestinian land, the AMEU (ISSN 0024-4007) grants 15. An updated edition of permission to reproduce material her book is due out this Au- virtually unchecked brutality of soldiers and from The Link in part or in whole. gust and is listed in our book settlers against Palestinian civilians, and Is- AMEU must be credited and one rael’s Apartheid Wall, separating hundreds copy forwarded to our office at 475 catalog on page 13. Riverside Drive, Room 245, New of thousands of Palestinians from their land, York, New York 10115-0245. Tel. John F. Mahoney jobs, hospitals, schools, and each other. 212-870-2053; Fax 212-870-2050; E-mail: [email protected]; Website: Executive Director I met one family whose house was com- www.ameu.org. The Link Page 3 pletely surrounded by the Wall—a one-family bantu- stan. I met Palestinians who had spent their lives in prison never having been told what crime they were accused of, nor given access to a lawyer. I helped vil- lagers pick barley seeds boiled in rat poison out from shrubs where settlers had planted them to deter shepherds from grazing their sheep on their land. I watched soldiers uproot olive trees in the middle of the night as collective punishment on entire villages. I took reports about extrajudicial assassinations and torture. I met the family of a six-year-old boy who inhaled poisonous gas that had been shot by soldiers into his home when he was less than a year old, and he hasn’t been able to walk, talk, or eat on his own since. I saw soldiers shoot at unarmed nonviolent protesters, including internationals and Israelis. I documented a week-long invasion into Nablus, in- cluding the systematic obstruction of medical ser- vices, and the extensive use of human shields, in- cluding an eleven-year-old girl. Dawud, whose six-month-old son died at an Israeli checkpoint when soldiers denied the family passage to a hospital in Ramallah.—Photo by Those “Benign” Checkpoints Anna Baltzer Perhaps the biggest surprise about the Occupa- tion for me was the nature of Israel’s military check- at Atara checkpoint as they were rushing their six- points. Of all the institutions of the Occupation, month-old son, who was having trouble breathing, checkpoints had always seemed to me the most be- to the hospital in Ramallah. Despite the parents’ nign. Wasn’t it natural that people be stopped to screams as they watched their son begin to choke, show their IDs when crossing between Israel and the shake, and eventually pass away, the soldiers re- West Bank, just as travelers between the U.S. and fused to let the family pass. Canada have to stop on their way from one to the I met Jaber, who was stopped at Huwwara other? I quickly realized that the hundreds of check- checkpoint on his way home from the hospital in points and other road obstructions in the West Bank Nablus. Sick with meningitis, Jaber had strict doc- were not on its border with Israel, but concentrated tor’s orders to rest in bed but was held by soldiers on Palestinian roads between Palestinian towns and for ten hours in the sun without food or water. villages. Also, unlike normal border crossings, not Not all of the violations were health-related. I everyone had to stop at these checkpoints. Jewish watched soldiers manning checkpoints beat and hu- settlers, their cars distinguishable by their yellow miliate Palestinians. I documented additional check- (Israeli) license plates, would breeze by hundreds of points set up during Jewish holidays and following Palestinians waiting at checkpoints in their vehicles threats of violence from Jewish settlers. I saw the with white and green (West Bank Palestinian) plates. way checkpoints prevent the efficient transport of During my eight months in the West Bank, I Palestinian goods. I witnessed first-hand the way documented countless abuses at these checkpoints. I checkpoints block Palestinians from reaching their interviewed Hessa, a woman who was stopped by homes and holy sites, in addition to their land, hos- soldiers at the checkpoint between her village of Deir pitals, and schools. Ballut and the nearest hospital in Ramallah when she Each year that I returned to the West Bank, I went into labor with twins. Unable to reach the hos- found these checkpoints more and more entrenched. pital in time, she lost both of her babies. At Huwwara checkpoint, the sheltered pens where Soldiers stopped my friend Dawud and his wife Palestinians would wait to enter or leave Nablus The Link Page 4 were replaced by metal turnstiles to keep Palestini- had yet to see a human face. ans waiting in a controlled line. The army redesigned In front of me was a metal detector, surrounded Zatara checkpoint between Ramallah and all points by iron bars. I began to walk through but the voice north with separate lanes for Jews and non-Jews, and called out from another speaker above, “Stop!” they installed a huge menorah—a symbol of the Jew- I stopped, wondering where he was watching ish people—at the center of the junction. Certain me from. checkpoints were replaced altogether with new ter- minal-style buildings. “Go back and put down your bags.” I first encountered one of these terminals in I sighed and went back through the metal detec- January of 2006 after visiting a women’s cooperative tor and set down my six bags, which were feeling in Tulkarem to purchase embroidery for friends in heavier by the minute.