We who live in the comfort of our homes and neighborhoods in Israel are totally unaware of the daily harassment of Arabs living in occupied Hevron. It’s an harassment engendered by a symbiotic relationship between illegal settlers and military occupation. It’s a relationship based on the premise that the settlers can have a quassi-normal life only by spending much effort in protecting them militarily within an occupied area; an effort to protect illegal settlers which so often overshadows the protection of the recognized borders of the Jewish State.
Much of this harassment is actually physical and violent. But there is also the constant harassment by “non-violent” degradation and punishment. This is constant, constant. constant. I repeat, constant.
Last week I received a copy of a letter written by Issa Amro. Issa Amro is a resident of Hevron in the occupied (H2) section. Issa is a Palestinian activist in Hebron. He is also the closest you can call a “peace-activist” in Hevron – meaning protesting the occupation by non-violent means. He also works for B’tzelem, an Israeli center for human rights in the territories. He is known as such in Hevron by Arabs and Jews and the military. His English is far from excellent, but it is perfect enough to show the meaning of constant harassment, constant harassment, constant harassment – and the symbiosis between settlers and military occupation.
Here is his letter (received via the Israeli activist group - Bnei Avraham):
Dear All
I am writing this to discharge my feeling by writing to my friends who can understand me .Today at 9:00 Pm I was walking beside the new settlement in Hebron (Palestinians building was occupied by the settlers recently). Two settlers with guns, they came to me, stood in my way and started photographing me. I didn't care. Its normal with me , I kept walking. One from them told me “I will kill you. I will kill all the Arabs”. The other one said “where is Carlos, where is Joanne, where is gorge and Troudy (gorge and Troudy yesterday the settlers attacked them and they went to the hospital). I didn't care and I kept walking. When I arrived to the soldiers tent I called them and I told them please help me, they are telling me that they want to kill me. Directly the settlers said to the the soldiers that I cut the water pipes, I told the soldiers NO NO NO NO, they told me they want to kill me, and lets go to see the water pipes. Soldiers said: 'sheket' (shut up) , give me your ID. They were five soldiers - two border police and three regular soldiers. They told me what do you have in your bag. They forced me to take off everything from the bag and put it in the ground. I told them I work for 'Btselem' and its the Israeli center for human rights. One of the regular soldiers said “I hate them more than you”. I told him “why?” He said “shut up”, after they saw every thing in my bag ,they were trying to provoke my feeling and they said many bad words. they finished with the bag so they told me now we want to search your body. They forced me to face the wall and to open my legs and searched me in very violence way. After that I told the soldiers you know I am not a terrorist, why you doing this with me? he said "shut up don't speak", they gave me my ID and told me have a nice day.
I think they intended to examine my nonviolence attitude. I think I got 10 from 10 , but I don't know next time how much I will get. They are doing all of this harassment daily in Hebron. For me each day they check me and detain me for at least 20 min. Some people they converted their attitude to be violence. I understand them.
According to the Israeli law the soldiers can do this if they suspect I am a terrorist, but they are sure that I am not and they know that I am usually leading Israeli tours and International delegations in the area , all the Israeli parliament members who visited Hebron I led them in the same area.
We need in hebron an army from the human rights worker. Now we have just three volunteer in TelRumieda.
Think of it: These are not the “normal once in a while” screw-ups of war and occupation. This is not a "special military operation". This is part of the daily, hourly norm of Arab life in occupied Hevron. It also relates the normal relationship between settlers and army.
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
HEVRON - real-estate problems
Settlers have physically harassed this house and it's Arab residents many times in an attempt to oust the last of three families that own it. (See also Hebrew "Kahana" graffiti on entrance gate.) Before leaving the house thru the gate, the residents must walk over corrugated aluminum sheets - in order to warn the soldier standing outside that someone is coming out of the house.
Friday, April 20, 2007
WHAT'S THE RUMBLE IN HEVRON?
To a dear friend in the U.S. who sent me a letter she recieved from a friend in Israel.
Hello Debbie
It was wonderful hearing from you and a little about you. I also read your friend’s letter. Normally I would have put her letter aside, but I obviously sensed the tinge of urgency and desperation in your own request for a sounding board. So this letter is to you, not to your friend.
Yes, I think your friend is right in pointing out that a major obstacle to peace are the Palestinian Arabs. They are one of three major obstacles: The first obstacle is of a global nature – the attempt of a militant and fundamentalist Islam to take over the Arab world and once again “take on” the western world. The second obstacle are the Palestinian people themselves that are finding it difficult to stand up to the first obstacle, are wooed by its promise of “victory”, and live under enough misery to warrant an approach of “nothing to loose” in a struggle for what they believe is theirs. The third obstacle is “us” – we Israelis, who have created a conquered territory filled with a local population that is held in bondage – not as hostages towards bargaining for peace or co-existence, but as a way of expanding and repopulating our “promised land”, regaining our biblically promised territories, and excusing much human degradation under the guise of defense necessities.
It seems to me that whoever doesn’t recognize all three major obstacles is either inflicted by a serious lack of knowledge regarding our situation, or else blinded by an overly amount of non-objectivism. Either case is often generated by an overly amount of subjective “belief” in “my side is right” – whichever side that may be.
No, I am not totally objective. I have beliefs, and some of them definitely come into conflict with the beliefs of others. It is particularly then, that I need to begin looking objectively at BOTH beliefs and decide whether it is worthwhile to find a way of resolving the conflict without one belief obliterating the other.
I need to add one more observation regarding the three major obstacles to peace. Resolving any one obstacle will not necessarily result in peace; more likely it will not. This is really the point that shows how intricate our problem really is, how answers cannot be given in “black and white”.
Perhaps I should also introduce some of my background. I am a Zionist, an American Oleh who came here in 1965 to kibbutz Gesher Haziv. I am familiar with Arab terrorism much earlier than the first Intifada. One of the first Katyushot that fell in Israel landed beside the window of our children’s bedroom as they were asleep. For many years my wife and I carried guns while strolling outside for fear of terrorist infiltrators that were coming in by border and by sea. Many many nights were spent lying in ambush around our perimeter before going out to work in the fields by morning (armed, of course). I have also spent time standing guard over Arab farmers near Shchem fearful of working their fields in the vicinity of pseudo-legal and vastly illegal Jewish Settlements in the occupied territories. I have also been to our Israeli occupied section of Hevron to witness and examine the conditions under which the local Arab populace lives. At least some of my impressions and thoughts come not from those of others but from what I have also seen, heard and felt on site.
I have read your friends letter of April 1st. She expresses what I think is a majority opinion in the country. It is therefore also the comfortable opinion, in the sense that it will rub fewer people the wrong way and will allow us to be acceptable in most crowds. (I don’t say this to be crude, only to point out that contrary opinions – like mine – can be awfully uncomfortable in most circles. As your friend indicates in her letter, not knowing her “truth” is a matter of “intellectual integrity” or lack of….)
As for some of the truths embodied in the letter, they are certainly worthwhile examining.
Your friend writes: “Fact: The "settlers" did not seize the building [in Hevron]. It was legally purchased. It would seem that you are not prepared to give Jews rights under the laws of Israel.”
Allow me to mention a few minor “facts”:
The Israeli occupied Hevron (Area H2) is not part of the State of Israel wherein reign the “Laws of Israel” – legally, according to Israeli law, it is occupied, not annexed. Israeli law, by the way, also states that moving into any new area of occupied territories must first receive government sanction and approval. This of course was not done in the case at hand. (Unfortunately, in my thinking, the government has given so many sanctions and approvals in the past, both over and under the table, that most settlers see this as a very minor issue.)
Your friend also misses the point regarding our search for co-existence - rather than our search for property. If legal property papers were the issue between us and the Palestinians, we are in deep trouble. Literally scores of villages in Israel, and a frightful amount of real-estate in cities like Jerusalem, Tzfat, Yaffo, and so much land which is today in the hands of the Lands Authority or the Army – have behind them legal titles belonging to many Palestinian refugees and Arab land owners from other countries in the Middle East (and also to many Israeli Arabs who are not allowed the privilege of returning to their homes). Aside from misrepresenting the legal issue, your friend seems to be trying to avoid the real issue: putting out the fire or at least lowering the flames of enmity. Your friend’s assumed “fact” prefers to throw another can of gasoline on a burning house – rather than assist the fire department in containment of the blaze.
Your friend enlightens us to another “fact”: “Hebron is widely considered an "Arab" city today only because of a history of Arab massacres of the Jews there during British Mandate times, when the British considered it easier to forcibly remove the Jews who survived the massacres rather than protect them, followed by a period of Jordanian occupation during which the area was rendered Judenrein.”
I found this to be a very strange “fact”. Most of the world considers Hevron an Arab city because of demography that stretches from earlier than the previous millennium till this very day. Our Jewish heritage and history not withstanding, Hevron is considered an Arab city also because it was not within the cease-fire boundaries that created the “recognized” State of Israel. It is considered an Arab city because it was occupied by us in a defensive war and held by us under martial law – because it is an Arab city. Even at the height of Jewish presence in Hevron, Hevron was demographically an Arab city.
Unless, of course, your friend means something else………something connected to her remarks about the pogrom of 1928 and to the last word quoted in the alleged “fact” – “JUDENREIN”. How quickly we revert to pogroms and the Shoah to excuse our every action. Your friend seems to be entering the complicated conflict between us and the Palestinians with intent for “revenge” rather than a quest for solutions. She is not alone in that approach.
Your friend’s subject matter is specifically Hevron rather than the wider issues of our conflict. I assume this is as a response to some other article or remarks about the latest real estate take-over in Hevron. Perhaps, then, I should relate some impressions I’ve gathered while walking the streets of our Israeli held H2 section of Hevron.
But first I must apologize. I, too, have been rambling on without touching base with those issues of the conflict which are so much more basic within my thinking. Also, these paragraphs fail to relate my own deepest sense of commitment to our Zionist creation, our State of Israel. Nor do these paragraphs relate my deep sense of regret at today’s face of our creation. Nor do these paragraphs relate my deep sense of frustration with the Palestinian leadership and their choice of terrorism as a legitimate weapon.ׁPerhaps some later opportunity will allow us to expand. Meanwhile, I revert to some impressions from Hevron.
Section H2 had about 35,000 Arab inhabitants when it was sectioned off from the rest of the city. I receive a variety of estimates regarding its present population – it seems that a good number of thousands have left their homes and crossed over to Section H1. I start walking from Maarat-Hamachpela. As I walk down the main street, Shuada, I realize that this is the immensely bustling downtown business center that I saw at times on the silver screen. Shop after shop line the street on the ground floor of all the buildings. Above them are the many windows of people’s homes, entrances thru narrow doors on the street bellow. This was a bustling market area. Today it is almost silent. Only soldiers. Army vehicles, some cars with “settlers” driving in or out of the city, and occasional “outsiders” like me visiting and perhaps disturbing the peace.
Along this entire main street, Arab vehicles, be they a bicycle or a pushcart or a car, cannot travel. Along most of this street Arabs cannot walk (only recently I joined a small group of young Arabs who dared “walking the road” as a result of a Supreme Court decision that the ban has been illegal for many years.) Shop fronts are all barricaded and shut tight – no business allowed. More than 1,500 shops have been closed down and nailed shut. No one can enter their homes thru the street doors. Nor thru the street windows. Doors are nailed shut. Windows are behind bars or wire mesh. Most homes are entered by climbing to the roof from the other side and going down from there into the buildings. More than 900 homes have been evacuated here because of the cumbersome obstacle course coming home to your kitchen or bedroom.
At the end of this main street (bordering between H1 and H2) is a passage way to H1 and a marketplace that isn’t hindered by “no walk and no wheels” rules. An Army checkpoint searches each man/woman/child crossing this junction. I can’t go into H2. I turn left going up a long steep street with local houses on both sides, into a totally residential area of Hevron. “Steep” is an understatement. I feel like I’m walking up at a 45 degree angle. Here Arabs can walk, but still nothing allowed on wheels (except for settlers). Ahead of me is an Arab man my age carrying on his back a large heavy canister of cooking gas for his kitchen, slowly trudging uphill at what seems like a 45 degree angle. Somewhere ahead of him is a young woman carrying bags of something as she leans forward to grapple with the upward climb. A car filled with settlers passes us by. I’m out of breath and rest a number of times till I reach the top of the street.
Once more I turn left, climbing up another street to visit an interesting family. Here I also pass alongside a large building which is one of the “Settlements” in the heart of Hevron. Doors are wide open, so are all the windows on all floors, Jewish children wearing bowl-shaped kipot are playing out on the street and giggling as we go by. Across the street are Arab houses. Doors and windows totally enclosed in iron cages with wire mesh. No children on the street. The cages were put up by order of the army. No, not just to keep the street adjacent to the “Settlement” clear of Arabs (or according to your friend’s vocabulary – “ArabRein”), but –according to the army- to protect the Arab families from harassment by the settlers.
(I already have a feeing that I’m not getting it all in…..the soldiers at every turn and corner….their faces…..The man with the canister on his back moving aside for the settler’s 4X4….the Arab having his groceries frisked on his way back home…..the embarrassment….the frustration….the shame….the silent anger. I don’t have all or enough of the right words.)
I go thru an iron gate into the courtyard of a three-family building. Two families have already left for H1. One family is still there and insists on staying. This has been their home for generations. I’m visiting a home of a relatively young couple who have a small daughter and a son almost reaching the beginning of his teens. The grandfather of today’s young owner made this house a safe haven for Jews during the pogrom of 1928 and forcibly held back any marauders attempting to enter. Many years later a grateful Israeli government gave him a letter of appreciation and thanks. It is held as a family treasure. The grandchild of that brave Arab belongs to a small group of young Arab adults in Hevron who have put together a small “non-violent-but-get-out-of-our-town-and let’s-have-Peace-now” movement. Obviously their impact is less than overwhelming, but nonetheless important.
This home has been a particular target of harassment by the neighbors next door – our Jewish Settlers. (This is a wonderful piece of real-estate. Large house and yard. A good view of lower Hevron from on high. But most of all, it’s in the proximity of our Jewish settlement. If we could only get the last owner out, and then find a way thru third and fourth parties to get hold of - even buy, if need be - the necessary deeds of ownership. Wouldn’t that be great??) Till recently (The family says this last year has been quieter) the family’s home had barrages of children throwing stones, older children and young adults actually entering their yard, surrounding their house from every side, menacing their children and trying to break in, only to be called back at various times by the appearance of army personnel. After lodging a number of complaints with the “proper authorities” – they learned the lessons of “a waste of time”. After all, it was only harassment (violent harassment, yet only harassment). But they aren’t moving out. This is irksome, even outrageously insulting to Settlers whose aim is to push out all Arab residents (remember once more your friend’s vocabulary style – ArabRein), and return this biblical city of Abraham to its rightful owners.
I visited a few more Arab neighbors who belong to the same real-estate resistance club. Their complaints, including eye-witness reports by soldiers, are lodged with the “proper authorities”, and there they rest in peace.
By the way, my ticket to these homes was thru a small group of Jewish peace activists called “B’nei Avraham”. The few of them who I met contain a mixture of “Chiloni-Shenken” with “Dati former-Settlers”. They concentrate specifically on Hevron with its biblical connection to Abraham and his two sons, Ishmael and Isaac – therefore “B’nei Avraham”. How easily so many of our Jews wish to forget that Abraham was also the father of Ishmael (the elder son ! ).
O.K. enough. I haven’t yet touched base with many other words written by your friend and which seem very odd and difficult within our complicated conflict. Yet have no doubt, they are not the voice of a minority. To my great sorrow. As to my own impressions and thoughts (and beliefs) about our conflict, I think that I’ve barely scraped the surface, but I also never meant to turn this letter to you into a dragged out piece of frustration. So I shall stop and let you breath – if you managed to stay tuned in this long.
My very very best to you.
Please keep well……and in touch.
aaron
To a dear friend in the U.S. who sent me a letter she recieved from a friend in Israel.
Hello Debbie
It was wonderful hearing from you and a little about you. I also read your friend’s letter. Normally I would have put her letter aside, but I obviously sensed the tinge of urgency and desperation in your own request for a sounding board. So this letter is to you, not to your friend.
Yes, I think your friend is right in pointing out that a major obstacle to peace are the Palestinian Arabs. They are one of three major obstacles: The first obstacle is of a global nature – the attempt of a militant and fundamentalist Islam to take over the Arab world and once again “take on” the western world. The second obstacle are the Palestinian people themselves that are finding it difficult to stand up to the first obstacle, are wooed by its promise of “victory”, and live under enough misery to warrant an approach of “nothing to loose” in a struggle for what they believe is theirs. The third obstacle is “us” – we Israelis, who have created a conquered territory filled with a local population that is held in bondage – not as hostages towards bargaining for peace or co-existence, but as a way of expanding and repopulating our “promised land”, regaining our biblically promised territories, and excusing much human degradation under the guise of defense necessities.
It seems to me that whoever doesn’t recognize all three major obstacles is either inflicted by a serious lack of knowledge regarding our situation, or else blinded by an overly amount of non-objectivism. Either case is often generated by an overly amount of subjective “belief” in “my side is right” – whichever side that may be.
No, I am not totally objective. I have beliefs, and some of them definitely come into conflict with the beliefs of others. It is particularly then, that I need to begin looking objectively at BOTH beliefs and decide whether it is worthwhile to find a way of resolving the conflict without one belief obliterating the other.
I need to add one more observation regarding the three major obstacles to peace. Resolving any one obstacle will not necessarily result in peace; more likely it will not. This is really the point that shows how intricate our problem really is, how answers cannot be given in “black and white”.
Perhaps I should also introduce some of my background. I am a Zionist, an American Oleh who came here in 1965 to kibbutz Gesher Haziv. I am familiar with Arab terrorism much earlier than the first Intifada. One of the first Katyushot that fell in Israel landed beside the window of our children’s bedroom as they were asleep. For many years my wife and I carried guns while strolling outside for fear of terrorist infiltrators that were coming in by border and by sea. Many many nights were spent lying in ambush around our perimeter before going out to work in the fields by morning (armed, of course). I have also spent time standing guard over Arab farmers near Shchem fearful of working their fields in the vicinity of pseudo-legal and vastly illegal Jewish Settlements in the occupied territories. I have also been to our Israeli occupied section of Hevron to witness and examine the conditions under which the local Arab populace lives. At least some of my impressions and thoughts come not from those of others but from what I have also seen, heard and felt on site.
I have read your friends letter of April 1st. She expresses what I think is a majority opinion in the country. It is therefore also the comfortable opinion, in the sense that it will rub fewer people the wrong way and will allow us to be acceptable in most crowds. (I don’t say this to be crude, only to point out that contrary opinions – like mine – can be awfully uncomfortable in most circles. As your friend indicates in her letter, not knowing her “truth” is a matter of “intellectual integrity” or lack of….)
As for some of the truths embodied in the letter, they are certainly worthwhile examining.
Your friend writes: “Fact: The "settlers" did not seize the building [in Hevron]. It was legally purchased. It would seem that you are not prepared to give Jews rights under the laws of Israel.”
Allow me to mention a few minor “facts”:
The Israeli occupied Hevron (Area H2) is not part of the State of Israel wherein reign the “Laws of Israel” – legally, according to Israeli law, it is occupied, not annexed. Israeli law, by the way, also states that moving into any new area of occupied territories must first receive government sanction and approval. This of course was not done in the case at hand. (Unfortunately, in my thinking, the government has given so many sanctions and approvals in the past, both over and under the table, that most settlers see this as a very minor issue.)
Your friend also misses the point regarding our search for co-existence - rather than our search for property. If legal property papers were the issue between us and the Palestinians, we are in deep trouble. Literally scores of villages in Israel, and a frightful amount of real-estate in cities like Jerusalem, Tzfat, Yaffo, and so much land which is today in the hands of the Lands Authority or the Army – have behind them legal titles belonging to many Palestinian refugees and Arab land owners from other countries in the Middle East (and also to many Israeli Arabs who are not allowed the privilege of returning to their homes). Aside from misrepresenting the legal issue, your friend seems to be trying to avoid the real issue: putting out the fire or at least lowering the flames of enmity. Your friend’s assumed “fact” prefers to throw another can of gasoline on a burning house – rather than assist the fire department in containment of the blaze.
Your friend enlightens us to another “fact”: “Hebron is widely considered an "Arab" city today only because of a history of Arab massacres of the Jews there during British Mandate times, when the British considered it easier to forcibly remove the Jews who survived the massacres rather than protect them, followed by a period of Jordanian occupation during which the area was rendered Judenrein.”
I found this to be a very strange “fact”. Most of the world considers Hevron an Arab city because of demography that stretches from earlier than the previous millennium till this very day. Our Jewish heritage and history not withstanding, Hevron is considered an Arab city also because it was not within the cease-fire boundaries that created the “recognized” State of Israel. It is considered an Arab city because it was occupied by us in a defensive war and held by us under martial law – because it is an Arab city. Even at the height of Jewish presence in Hevron, Hevron was demographically an Arab city.
Unless, of course, your friend means something else………something connected to her remarks about the pogrom of 1928 and to the last word quoted in the alleged “fact” – “JUDENREIN”. How quickly we revert to pogroms and the Shoah to excuse our every action. Your friend seems to be entering the complicated conflict between us and the Palestinians with intent for “revenge” rather than a quest for solutions. She is not alone in that approach.
Your friend’s subject matter is specifically Hevron rather than the wider issues of our conflict. I assume this is as a response to some other article or remarks about the latest real estate take-over in Hevron. Perhaps, then, I should relate some impressions I’ve gathered while walking the streets of our Israeli held H2 section of Hevron.
But first I must apologize. I, too, have been rambling on without touching base with those issues of the conflict which are so much more basic within my thinking. Also, these paragraphs fail to relate my own deepest sense of commitment to our Zionist creation, our State of Israel. Nor do these paragraphs relate my deep sense of regret at today’s face of our creation. Nor do these paragraphs relate my deep sense of frustration with the Palestinian leadership and their choice of terrorism as a legitimate weapon.ׁPerhaps some later opportunity will allow us to expand. Meanwhile, I revert to some impressions from Hevron.
Section H2 had about 35,000 Arab inhabitants when it was sectioned off from the rest of the city. I receive a variety of estimates regarding its present population – it seems that a good number of thousands have left their homes and crossed over to Section H1. I start walking from Maarat-Hamachpela. As I walk down the main street, Shuada, I realize that this is the immensely bustling downtown business center that I saw at times on the silver screen. Shop after shop line the street on the ground floor of all the buildings. Above them are the many windows of people’s homes, entrances thru narrow doors on the street bellow. This was a bustling market area. Today it is almost silent. Only soldiers. Army vehicles, some cars with “settlers” driving in or out of the city, and occasional “outsiders” like me visiting and perhaps disturbing the peace.
Along this entire main street, Arab vehicles, be they a bicycle or a pushcart or a car, cannot travel. Along most of this street Arabs cannot walk (only recently I joined a small group of young Arabs who dared “walking the road” as a result of a Supreme Court decision that the ban has been illegal for many years.) Shop fronts are all barricaded and shut tight – no business allowed. More than 1,500 shops have been closed down and nailed shut. No one can enter their homes thru the street doors. Nor thru the street windows. Doors are nailed shut. Windows are behind bars or wire mesh. Most homes are entered by climbing to the roof from the other side and going down from there into the buildings. More than 900 homes have been evacuated here because of the cumbersome obstacle course coming home to your kitchen or bedroom.
At the end of this main street (bordering between H1 and H2) is a passage way to H1 and a marketplace that isn’t hindered by “no walk and no wheels” rules. An Army checkpoint searches each man/woman/child crossing this junction. I can’t go into H2. I turn left going up a long steep street with local houses on both sides, into a totally residential area of Hevron. “Steep” is an understatement. I feel like I’m walking up at a 45 degree angle. Here Arabs can walk, but still nothing allowed on wheels (except for settlers). Ahead of me is an Arab man my age carrying on his back a large heavy canister of cooking gas for his kitchen, slowly trudging uphill at what seems like a 45 degree angle. Somewhere ahead of him is a young woman carrying bags of something as she leans forward to grapple with the upward climb. A car filled with settlers passes us by. I’m out of breath and rest a number of times till I reach the top of the street.
Once more I turn left, climbing up another street to visit an interesting family. Here I also pass alongside a large building which is one of the “Settlements” in the heart of Hevron. Doors are wide open, so are all the windows on all floors, Jewish children wearing bowl-shaped kipot are playing out on the street and giggling as we go by. Across the street are Arab houses. Doors and windows totally enclosed in iron cages with wire mesh. No children on the street. The cages were put up by order of the army. No, not just to keep the street adjacent to the “Settlement” clear of Arabs (or according to your friend’s vocabulary – “ArabRein”), but –according to the army- to protect the Arab families from harassment by the settlers.
(I already have a feeing that I’m not getting it all in…..the soldiers at every turn and corner….their faces…..The man with the canister on his back moving aside for the settler’s 4X4….the Arab having his groceries frisked on his way back home…..the embarrassment….the frustration….the shame….the silent anger. I don’t have all or enough of the right words.)
I go thru an iron gate into the courtyard of a three-family building. Two families have already left for H1. One family is still there and insists on staying. This has been their home for generations. I’m visiting a home of a relatively young couple who have a small daughter and a son almost reaching the beginning of his teens. The grandfather of today’s young owner made this house a safe haven for Jews during the pogrom of 1928 and forcibly held back any marauders attempting to enter. Many years later a grateful Israeli government gave him a letter of appreciation and thanks. It is held as a family treasure. The grandchild of that brave Arab belongs to a small group of young Arab adults in Hevron who have put together a small “non-violent-but-get-out-of-our-town-and let’s-have-Peace-now” movement. Obviously their impact is less than overwhelming, but nonetheless important.
This home has been a particular target of harassment by the neighbors next door – our Jewish Settlers. (This is a wonderful piece of real-estate. Large house and yard. A good view of lower Hevron from on high. But most of all, it’s in the proximity of our Jewish settlement. If we could only get the last owner out, and then find a way thru third and fourth parties to get hold of - even buy, if need be - the necessary deeds of ownership. Wouldn’t that be great??) Till recently (The family says this last year has been quieter) the family’s home had barrages of children throwing stones, older children and young adults actually entering their yard, surrounding their house from every side, menacing their children and trying to break in, only to be called back at various times by the appearance of army personnel. After lodging a number of complaints with the “proper authorities” – they learned the lessons of “a waste of time”. After all, it was only harassment (violent harassment, yet only harassment). But they aren’t moving out. This is irksome, even outrageously insulting to Settlers whose aim is to push out all Arab residents (remember once more your friend’s vocabulary style – ArabRein), and return this biblical city of Abraham to its rightful owners.
I visited a few more Arab neighbors who belong to the same real-estate resistance club. Their complaints, including eye-witness reports by soldiers, are lodged with the “proper authorities”, and there they rest in peace.
By the way, my ticket to these homes was thru a small group of Jewish peace activists called “B’nei Avraham”. The few of them who I met contain a mixture of “Chiloni-Shenken” with “Dati former-Settlers”. They concentrate specifically on Hevron with its biblical connection to Abraham and his two sons, Ishmael and Isaac – therefore “B’nei Avraham”. How easily so many of our Jews wish to forget that Abraham was also the father of Ishmael (the elder son ! ).
O.K. enough. I haven’t yet touched base with many other words written by your friend and which seem very odd and difficult within our complicated conflict. Yet have no doubt, they are not the voice of a minority. To my great sorrow. As to my own impressions and thoughts (and beliefs) about our conflict, I think that I’ve barely scraped the surface, but I also never meant to turn this letter to you into a dragged out piece of frustration. So I shall stop and let you breath – if you managed to stay tuned in this long.
My very very best to you.
Please keep well……and in touch.
aaron
Monday, August 7, 2006
Sharif family wartime Update (no.5)
7 August, 2006
Life goes on at home in Gesher Haziv.
The sirens give us lots of prime time in our relatively-safe small bedroom with reclining bed, T.V. and telephone. We tend to think that if a rocket lands right by our house (perhaps also inside) we’ll be relatively-safe from shrapnel, shock wave and other little killing objects flying in our direction – if we shuffled into the bedroom in time. We fairly well realize that a direct hit on our bedroom would have us joining ancestors, but that’s a statistical gamble we opted for. The alternative would be to spend a lot of time in an underground shelter, away from the amenities and sweet smells of home. No thanks. Our prerogative.
Another alternative would be to leave the area for the safety of more southern points. Our children did so with our grandchildren. We’re happy about that. Friends and family coax and tempt. We’re grateful, but not now. No particular logic. Just so. Most of the community has migrated southward. That’s fine. I’m not sure, but I think that to turn us into pilgrims there would have to be an actual enemy invasion by land forces, or at least a specific order from our own army to vacate the area. As I ask myself why such an illogical choice to stay, I find myself in an emotional empathy with the many Lebanese who had to leave northward without having any statistical choice. Anyways, we have the choice and we’re here.
As of a couple of weeks ago I actually get up and go to work every morning. In accounting – bookkeeping – records: there’s always what to do, and what isn’t done today won’t go away tomorrow. There is a safe area one floor below. I moved down some computers. I stay upstairs with my own work. At the whirl of a siren (many times during the day) I spend a few minutes behind an inner wall or go visiting downstairs. Iris has been gathering a group of the elderly every day in the main shelter for some arduous physical exercises, after which she helps distribute the daily mail to our more than 400 mailboxes. Mail doesn’t arrive here during the war. We go to the back door of the main post-office in Nahariya, collect an oversized mailbag and bring it to our mailroom. During a lull in the action, those here come to collect their mail.
Though possibly only a third of the community is still here, we are fairly well organized. Rifi sees to underground shelter events for the few children that are still here, and trips outside the war area. Efi is in direct touch with the army about activities in our area. Volunteers constantly man the phone in our main shelter – the “war room”. We have a fire brigade (has been active), we have an “armed civilian unit” in case of terrorist infiltration (no call so far). Communication is constant between all of these and the entire community (both here and those away) via SMS messages sent to everyone’s cell-phones through the internet. There is an Hanhala. There are meetings Shai and Tami keep the kibbutz office open and available for continuing some affairs “as usual” and being available to the outside world. The infirmary, the library and our small local supermarket daily announce times open for service. This can change at a moments notice as the rockets re-schedule our lives.
It seems that more than 3000 rockets have so far arrived from Lebanon. Less than 20 have fallen around our kibbutz; only four in residential areas; minor damage to a number of homes. Many many more rockets fell all around us – Nahariya and Saar bordering on our south, Cabri and our regional hospital bordering on the east, Moshav Lehman bordering on the north, and who knows how many in the sea to the west. People were killed, many were injured, many homes damaged including the hospital which had moved its work underground. So far Gesher Haziv has enjoyed some kind of relatively positive karma.
Even in the chaos of war there are things that have a regular schedule. After dark we have a lull in the sirens, the rockets, the rush into safe-rooms. I thought it was because in the dark it’s easier for the army to see from where the Hezbollah rockets were launched. Somewhere now I’ve heard that after sundown the land cools down and it’s easier for the air force to pin-point the moving “hot-spots” of terrorists preparing their launching activity. All this does not mean that there is blossoming war-time nightlife. Not in our quiet berg. But though we still hear our own guns working overtime and the air force still rumbles the skies, nighttime is relaxation time. And we can find sleep.
Good night. Be well.
Aaron.
7 August, 2006
Life goes on at home in Gesher Haziv.
The sirens give us lots of prime time in our relatively-safe small bedroom with reclining bed, T.V. and telephone. We tend to think that if a rocket lands right by our house (perhaps also inside) we’ll be relatively-safe from shrapnel, shock wave and other little killing objects flying in our direction – if we shuffled into the bedroom in time. We fairly well realize that a direct hit on our bedroom would have us joining ancestors, but that’s a statistical gamble we opted for. The alternative would be to spend a lot of time in an underground shelter, away from the amenities and sweet smells of home. No thanks. Our prerogative.
Another alternative would be to leave the area for the safety of more southern points. Our children did so with our grandchildren. We’re happy about that. Friends and family coax and tempt. We’re grateful, but not now. No particular logic. Just so. Most of the community has migrated southward. That’s fine. I’m not sure, but I think that to turn us into pilgrims there would have to be an actual enemy invasion by land forces, or at least a specific order from our own army to vacate the area. As I ask myself why such an illogical choice to stay, I find myself in an emotional empathy with the many Lebanese who had to leave northward without having any statistical choice. Anyways, we have the choice and we’re here.
As of a couple of weeks ago I actually get up and go to work every morning. In accounting – bookkeeping – records: there’s always what to do, and what isn’t done today won’t go away tomorrow. There is a safe area one floor below. I moved down some computers. I stay upstairs with my own work. At the whirl of a siren (many times during the day) I spend a few minutes behind an inner wall or go visiting downstairs. Iris has been gathering a group of the elderly every day in the main shelter for some arduous physical exercises, after which she helps distribute the daily mail to our more than 400 mailboxes. Mail doesn’t arrive here during the war. We go to the back door of the main post-office in Nahariya, collect an oversized mailbag and bring it to our mailroom. During a lull in the action, those here come to collect their mail.
Though possibly only a third of the community is still here, we are fairly well organized. Rifi sees to underground shelter events for the few children that are still here, and trips outside the war area. Efi is in direct touch with the army about activities in our area. Volunteers constantly man the phone in our main shelter – the “war room”. We have a fire brigade (has been active), we have an “armed civilian unit” in case of terrorist infiltration (no call so far). Communication is constant between all of these and the entire community (both here and those away) via SMS messages sent to everyone’s cell-phones through the internet. There is an Hanhala. There are meetings Shai and Tami keep the kibbutz office open and available for continuing some affairs “as usual” and being available to the outside world. The infirmary, the library and our small local supermarket daily announce times open for service. This can change at a moments notice as the rockets re-schedule our lives.
It seems that more than 3000 rockets have so far arrived from Lebanon. Less than 20 have fallen around our kibbutz; only four in residential areas; minor damage to a number of homes. Many many more rockets fell all around us – Nahariya and Saar bordering on our south, Cabri and our regional hospital bordering on the east, Moshav Lehman bordering on the north, and who knows how many in the sea to the west. People were killed, many were injured, many homes damaged including the hospital which had moved its work underground. So far Gesher Haziv has enjoyed some kind of relatively positive karma.
Even in the chaos of war there are things that have a regular schedule. After dark we have a lull in the sirens, the rockets, the rush into safe-rooms. I thought it was because in the dark it’s easier for the army to see from where the Hezbollah rockets were launched. Somewhere now I’ve heard that after sundown the land cools down and it’s easier for the air force to pin-point the moving “hot-spots” of terrorists preparing their launching activity. All this does not mean that there is blossoming war-time nightlife. Not in our quiet berg. But though we still hear our own guns working overtime and the air force still rumbles the skies, nighttime is relaxation time. And we can find sleep.
Good night. Be well.
Aaron.
Thursday, August 3, 2006
Sirens of War - an update (no.4)
3 August, 2006. Hello to our dear friends,
Update number four(?). short. Between work and war there seems to be a lack of time.
Yesterday was a trying day. Katyusha rockets at various intervals all day long. And Sirens. Yes, contrary to what you may have thought, the first three weeks of this war had no sirens. We had loudspeakers from Naharia and local. We also had an SMS system (95% are with cellphones). Army notifies us, we take to the horn while simultaneously sending about 600 SMS messages to those here and to the many who have migrated south. That’s also (SMS) how we notify about one or another happening that’s going on in an underground shelter….e.g. crafts and games for children, movies, visiting celebs and such.
As of day before yesterday – sirens whining up and down. They’re connected to a national network. As soon as army technology spots a rocket lifting off in our direction, the siren goes off and we have some time (measured in seconds) to get into a shelter or safe-room. Iris and I scamper (no panic) into our 3 by 3 square meter bedroom, hear the explosions in the area, wait a while and then leave to once again hear the constant rumble of big guns far and near.
As mentioned before, yesterday was a trying day. So was today. Probably tomorrow the same. But tomorrow we won’t be here. Away for the week-end. (That sentence sounds so peaceful and suburban). We’re off to visit children and grandchildren spread around Kfar Yedidya, Tel-Aviv and Kibbutz Givat-Brenner. Friday I’ll spend some time in Saálem, that Palestinian town near Shchem where I help the farmers avoid harassment by Jewish criminal fundamentalists who set their eyes on Sa’alem’s lands. From there I’m off to meet Iris and see the family.
We need the week-end vacation. Three weeks of “here” and probably more to come. It’s tiring, at times exhausting, and allows for creeping anxiety.
Here and there over the years we meet up with it. Here’s what I’ve found: Anxiety is a state of mind that starts somewhere deep in the stomach, swells up through the lungs, chokes up the esophagus, dizzies the brain and stumbles back down to the stomach in a nauseating never-ending loop. Getting out of it takes concentration and the ability to relax. It means recognizing what’s happening and grasping hold of our primitive ability to control mind over body. Well, lately we’ve gotten some more practice.
All in all, we and our (and likely your) friends in Gesher Haziv who haven’t (yet?) migrated southward are fine, and our little town has been luckier than others around us.
Across the border things are not so well. Mainly for civilian life and also for the hopes of changing the situation we’re in. Sometimes I see a faint light at the end of the tunnel, but unsure yet whether its daylight or the headlights of an oncoming tank, or maybe just another lost person with a flashlight. Obviously we’re sitting at the border of a global conflict between a western open society and a fundamentalist Islamic “something-or-other”. Mel Gibson was “almost” right: Before the west wakes up we’re right up front in THIS ONE, somewhat like we were in the last BIG ONE. But this time is different. Major major different. During some intermission I may bother you again by expanding on those last sentences. Meanwhile I’m getting up to expand on some midnight snack.
That’s it. Just a reminder that we’re fine, and plan to be so.
Aaron.
3 August, 2006. Hello to our dear friends,
Update number four(?). short. Between work and war there seems to be a lack of time.
Yesterday was a trying day. Katyusha rockets at various intervals all day long. And Sirens. Yes, contrary to what you may have thought, the first three weeks of this war had no sirens. We had loudspeakers from Naharia and local. We also had an SMS system (95% are with cellphones). Army notifies us, we take to the horn while simultaneously sending about 600 SMS messages to those here and to the many who have migrated south. That’s also (SMS) how we notify about one or another happening that’s going on in an underground shelter….e.g. crafts and games for children, movies, visiting celebs and such.
As of day before yesterday – sirens whining up and down. They’re connected to a national network. As soon as army technology spots a rocket lifting off in our direction, the siren goes off and we have some time (measured in seconds) to get into a shelter or safe-room. Iris and I scamper (no panic) into our 3 by 3 square meter bedroom, hear the explosions in the area, wait a while and then leave to once again hear the constant rumble of big guns far and near.
As mentioned before, yesterday was a trying day. So was today. Probably tomorrow the same. But tomorrow we won’t be here. Away for the week-end. (That sentence sounds so peaceful and suburban). We’re off to visit children and grandchildren spread around Kfar Yedidya, Tel-Aviv and Kibbutz Givat-Brenner. Friday I’ll spend some time in Saálem, that Palestinian town near Shchem where I help the farmers avoid harassment by Jewish criminal fundamentalists who set their eyes on Sa’alem’s lands. From there I’m off to meet Iris and see the family.
We need the week-end vacation. Three weeks of “here” and probably more to come. It’s tiring, at times exhausting, and allows for creeping anxiety.
Here and there over the years we meet up with it. Here’s what I’ve found: Anxiety is a state of mind that starts somewhere deep in the stomach, swells up through the lungs, chokes up the esophagus, dizzies the brain and stumbles back down to the stomach in a nauseating never-ending loop. Getting out of it takes concentration and the ability to relax. It means recognizing what’s happening and grasping hold of our primitive ability to control mind over body. Well, lately we’ve gotten some more practice.
All in all, we and our (and likely your) friends in Gesher Haziv who haven’t (yet?) migrated southward are fine, and our little town has been luckier than others around us.
Across the border things are not so well. Mainly for civilian life and also for the hopes of changing the situation we’re in. Sometimes I see a faint light at the end of the tunnel, but unsure yet whether its daylight or the headlights of an oncoming tank, or maybe just another lost person with a flashlight. Obviously we’re sitting at the border of a global conflict between a western open society and a fundamentalist Islamic “something-or-other”. Mel Gibson was “almost” right: Before the west wakes up we’re right up front in THIS ONE, somewhat like we were in the last BIG ONE. But this time is different. Major major different. During some intermission I may bother you again by expanding on those last sentences. Meanwhile I’m getting up to expand on some midnight snack.
That’s it. Just a reminder that we’re fine, and plan to be so.
Aaron.
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
more war - update (no.3)
Hello to all who may still be interested:
25th of July, 2006. I think its Tuesday. (update no. 3….or 4?)
Early This morning I woke up to the strange sound of quiet. Not total quiet. I could hear the birds. But no guns near by, none in the far distance, no plane passing by nor the whirl of a chopper.
It was not that I died and went to heaven. Thank goodness. I have a few things to do yet. (places to go, things to see, etc…). I reached for the radio, pushed the button and sorrowfully learned that we were temporarily lodged in the eye of the storm.
The war was still on all around us. Hezbollah was still there. Our soldiers are still carefully surrounding the Hezbollah stronghold of Bint-Jabil, Heavy guns and the air force are continuously active, but most of the noise is heard further east of us and in the upper Galilee. Condi is talking with Tzipi. The Lebanese gov wants a cease fire, but voices from there are also asking for a further weakening of Hezbollah before they can be replaced by the Lebanese army. That seems also to be the jist of talks between Condi and Tzipi. The war continues. No one has yet found available conditions for a meaningful cease fire. Condi has gone on. Dying also goes on.
Yesterday started out reasonably quiet in our small, partially vacated community. Then came late afternoon with a violent barrage of rockets all around us. Fortunately, no one hurt, and no damage other than heavy brush fires which we couldn’t control until a pro fire brigade arrived. Trees and bushes went up in flames.
I know that the demise of vegetation is such a very minor worry while people are being killed and maimed on both sides of the border. I know that the migration of families from the war area in Lebanon, hundreds of thousands of people, is causing human suffering which needs to be answered and aided. And yet, at least for a moment, I need also to spare a wet tear or two for the color green. So many trees, bushes, beautiful open areas of wild plants we call weeds, have turned to grey ash after more than 2000 rockets. I know we can eventually bring it all back (something which can’t be done with lives of people). But will we?
O.K., I just heard them. The big guns are once again barking not far from us. We’re back to normal. A number of rockets just landed in our area. We took our breakfast into our “security” bedroom, opened the T.V. for the latest news, and waited. Well, the warfront is no longer starring 24 hours a day on almost every local T.V. station. We’re back to some of the regular morning talk-talk shows and how-to-cook repertoire. Back to the radio. As yet no mention of our guest rockets this morning. Almost a feeling of being forgotten? I know we haven’t been, but life in most of the country travels on as we learn to absorb the present, grit our teeth, carry on and expect tomorrow to be better. Life for many in Lebanon is a lot more difficult. I am sorry for those who are the unwilling hostages of a Government policy which allows a terrorist organization to dictate what occurs along their border with Israel. Today I don’t know how to help them. Maybe others can. Maybe we’ll also be able to at some tomorrow. There it is on the screen: “rockets fall in western Galilee (that’s us). House hit in Nahariya. Everyone safe.” I knew we weren’t forgotten, neither by the Hezbollah nor by our media.
One of my sons was called up for active reserve duty a few of days ago. He is already in his 40’s with wife and three children. He is part of a medical team stationed along a very “warm” part of the border. We talk with him every day. He tells us that things by him are fine and safe. Somehow, we still worry. Parents are a fretful breed of humans.
Actually, I’m worried about a lot more. Violence can’t eradicate violence. This war (mini-war according to some) has its limits regarding the results it’s able to offer us in defense against terrorists who are deployed within the civilian population and who are connected to a much larger network of regional and global terror funded and funneled from Iran and Syria, but basically belonging to a much wider global rude awakening of an Islamic religious fundamentalism. (That sentence is way too long, but that’s how loaded the situation really is.)
I think our government made the right move by deciding to evict the Hezbollah from their entrenchment along our border. It would also be good if we could get the Lebanese government (and army) to take responsibility for southern Lebanon as was negotiated upon our leaving the area 6 years ago. It would also be good if the Hezbollah were totally disarmed, as was ditto promised. It would be a blessing to receive back the kidnapped soldiers. It would be right to enter a safer phase of life along our northern border.
On the other hand a whole bunch of blurry questions are constantly knocking at the back door of our cranium: When its all over, will the katyushas still come from somewhere further north in Lebanon?? If the Hezbollah never actually “give up” (which they won’t), how will we know when it’s over?? Can we keep this whole mess localized between us, the Hezbollah and Lebanon?? Where is the “line of turmoil” that should not be crossed?? Will Lebanon come out of this ‘independent’ or will it once more revert to a dependency on Syria?? At what point will Syria decide it can no longer sit on the sideline of the action?? Will we know to recognize that point before getting to it?? Can we be so sure that Iran will stay quiet, rumbling only at the mouth?? At what point does a local action turn into a regional bonfire….and from there into something more??
Plenty of questions, no clear answers. Government and army thinktanks, along with a variety of intelligence agencies, must have deliberated these and other questions before our soldiers were killed and kidnapped two weeks ago. I hope their judgments were based on ample raw data. I hope their judgments are right. They haven’t always been so in the past.
For the moment I’m optimistic and hopeful. Mainly, I’m expecting for some hard negotiations to begin at some point. Here again, I’m expecting our people to grasp hold of that point when it arrives. Hold on tightly. Don’t lose the point.
Aaron Sharif
Kibbutz Gesher Haziv
Hello to all who may still be interested:
25th of July, 2006. I think its Tuesday. (update no. 3….or 4?)
Early This morning I woke up to the strange sound of quiet. Not total quiet. I could hear the birds. But no guns near by, none in the far distance, no plane passing by nor the whirl of a chopper.
It was not that I died and went to heaven. Thank goodness. I have a few things to do yet. (places to go, things to see, etc…). I reached for the radio, pushed the button and sorrowfully learned that we were temporarily lodged in the eye of the storm.
The war was still on all around us. Hezbollah was still there. Our soldiers are still carefully surrounding the Hezbollah stronghold of Bint-Jabil, Heavy guns and the air force are continuously active, but most of the noise is heard further east of us and in the upper Galilee. Condi is talking with Tzipi. The Lebanese gov wants a cease fire, but voices from there are also asking for a further weakening of Hezbollah before they can be replaced by the Lebanese army. That seems also to be the jist of talks between Condi and Tzipi. The war continues. No one has yet found available conditions for a meaningful cease fire. Condi has gone on. Dying also goes on.
Yesterday started out reasonably quiet in our small, partially vacated community. Then came late afternoon with a violent barrage of rockets all around us. Fortunately, no one hurt, and no damage other than heavy brush fires which we couldn’t control until a pro fire brigade arrived. Trees and bushes went up in flames.
I know that the demise of vegetation is such a very minor worry while people are being killed and maimed on both sides of the border. I know that the migration of families from the war area in Lebanon, hundreds of thousands of people, is causing human suffering which needs to be answered and aided. And yet, at least for a moment, I need also to spare a wet tear or two for the color green. So many trees, bushes, beautiful open areas of wild plants we call weeds, have turned to grey ash after more than 2000 rockets. I know we can eventually bring it all back (something which can’t be done with lives of people). But will we?
O.K., I just heard them. The big guns are once again barking not far from us. We’re back to normal. A number of rockets just landed in our area. We took our breakfast into our “security” bedroom, opened the T.V. for the latest news, and waited. Well, the warfront is no longer starring 24 hours a day on almost every local T.V. station. We’re back to some of the regular morning talk-talk shows and how-to-cook repertoire. Back to the radio. As yet no mention of our guest rockets this morning. Almost a feeling of being forgotten? I know we haven’t been, but life in most of the country travels on as we learn to absorb the present, grit our teeth, carry on and expect tomorrow to be better. Life for many in Lebanon is a lot more difficult. I am sorry for those who are the unwilling hostages of a Government policy which allows a terrorist organization to dictate what occurs along their border with Israel. Today I don’t know how to help them. Maybe others can. Maybe we’ll also be able to at some tomorrow. There it is on the screen: “rockets fall in western Galilee (that’s us). House hit in Nahariya. Everyone safe.” I knew we weren’t forgotten, neither by the Hezbollah nor by our media.
One of my sons was called up for active reserve duty a few of days ago. He is already in his 40’s with wife and three children. He is part of a medical team stationed along a very “warm” part of the border. We talk with him every day. He tells us that things by him are fine and safe. Somehow, we still worry. Parents are a fretful breed of humans.
Actually, I’m worried about a lot more. Violence can’t eradicate violence. This war (mini-war according to some) has its limits regarding the results it’s able to offer us in defense against terrorists who are deployed within the civilian population and who are connected to a much larger network of regional and global terror funded and funneled from Iran and Syria, but basically belonging to a much wider global rude awakening of an Islamic religious fundamentalism. (That sentence is way too long, but that’s how loaded the situation really is.)
I think our government made the right move by deciding to evict the Hezbollah from their entrenchment along our border. It would also be good if we could get the Lebanese government (and army) to take responsibility for southern Lebanon as was negotiated upon our leaving the area 6 years ago. It would also be good if the Hezbollah were totally disarmed, as was ditto promised. It would be a blessing to receive back the kidnapped soldiers. It would be right to enter a safer phase of life along our northern border.
On the other hand a whole bunch of blurry questions are constantly knocking at the back door of our cranium: When its all over, will the katyushas still come from somewhere further north in Lebanon?? If the Hezbollah never actually “give up” (which they won’t), how will we know when it’s over?? Can we keep this whole mess localized between us, the Hezbollah and Lebanon?? Where is the “line of turmoil” that should not be crossed?? Will Lebanon come out of this ‘independent’ or will it once more revert to a dependency on Syria?? At what point will Syria decide it can no longer sit on the sideline of the action?? Will we know to recognize that point before getting to it?? Can we be so sure that Iran will stay quiet, rumbling only at the mouth?? At what point does a local action turn into a regional bonfire….and from there into something more??
Plenty of questions, no clear answers. Government and army thinktanks, along with a variety of intelligence agencies, must have deliberated these and other questions before our soldiers were killed and kidnapped two weeks ago. I hope their judgments were based on ample raw data. I hope their judgments are right. They haven’t always been so in the past.
For the moment I’m optimistic and hopeful. Mainly, I’m expecting for some hard negotiations to begin at some point. Here again, I’m expecting our people to grasp hold of that point when it arrives. Hold on tightly. Don’t lose the point.
Aaron Sharif
Kibbutz Gesher Haziv
Sunday, July 23, 2006
Dear Oak: at WAR in LEBANON !!? - Update (no.2)
This week I received a letter written by a British friend of Adar and Carmi. I met him at our house on his way back from a protest against the wall. He, like others, judges our action in Lebanon. I needed to answer him; something of my own personal defense mechanism. To some extent my response glosses over much of my own criticism about many of our actions. Call it natural in the face of outside criticism. I wish I was talented enough to put all this in one small paragraph, but I’m not.
Here is the letter I received:
Innocent people both in Israel and Lebanon are suffering - but there seems to be one difference.
Most Lebanese want a ceasefire.
Most Israelis want the 'war' to continue.
An Israeli ground offensive will destroy what remains of southern Lebanon.
Will this really improve Israel's security? For how long?
Hisbollah are recognized as terrorists by the west.
Israel is destroying a country and killing hundreds of civilians - so what does that make Israel?
Bush and Blair refuse to call for a ceasefire - prefering death and destruction, and risking a wider war.
The BBC reports the evacuation of British citizens from Beirut, and injuries to Israeli citizens, whilst almost ignoring the death and destruction in Lebanon.
Sean says "What if Israel sent over sandwiches and clothes instead of missiles?"Please forward this to your friends to spread this message.If you do not wish to spread this message, if you think I've got it wrong, I would like to hear your thoughts.Oak
This was my response:
Dear Oak.
As I write this I hear the guns.
I don’t like guns. Can I do without them?
For the last 35 years we have had to constantly build and rebuild defenses against terrorist infiltration and katyusha rockets coming across the border from Lebanon. It was not a game. Our people were murdered. Schoolchildren were held hostage in their classroom and slain “for the cause”. A rocket fell only too close for comfort in front of my house with shrapnel flying through the walls of our children’s bedroom, glass shattering over them as they slept. Our army fired back, our air force made small punitive answers. We wanted a Lebanese government to control the Fattah groups that were responsible, but the Lebanese government was not functioning while all the ethnic groups in Lebanon were busy fighting and killing each other.
In 1982 the Israeli army went in to do what the Lebanese were unable and unwilling to do: drive the Fattah groups far from the border. Lebanon was still unable to put together a viable government, and the Israeli public was torn between the need to stay in part of southern Lebanon to keep our border safe, and the need to get out and let the Lebanese once more do what they can to govern and control all of Lebanon including the terrorist organizations. To my mind, it is unfortunate that this internal conflict within the Israeli public lasted till the year 1999. Nevertheless, in that year a number of things happened. Israel announced that its army would leave southern Lebanon on the basis of a major requirement: the Lebanese government would take responsibility for the border with Israel, would place its army in southern Lebanon and would disarm the Hezbollah. The Lebanese Government and the United Nations required of Israel to have a U.N. team delineate the exact international border between the two countries. Israel acceded and so it came to pass. The U.N. passed its resolution for Israel to move over the border delineated by its team in order for the Lebanese army to take control of southern Lebanon.
Israel moved out of southern Lebanon, the Lebanese army did not move in. Since then, not only did the Lebanese government totally ignore its responsibility for southern Lebanon, but it allowed the Hezbollah to become the complete controllers of the area with a constant buildup of arms and equipment from Iran through Syria. Rockets kept flying over onto Israeli communities. Attempts and a few successes were made at kidnapping across the border. The Lebanese Government turned a blind eye with hints of approval. The international community puts no pressure whatsoever on the Lebanese to take control of the border and to disarm the terrorist military organization in their midst. The international community does pressure Israel to “stay calm”. Meanwhile the Hezbollah acquire bigger and more far-reaching rockets: an organization called “terrorist” by the non-fundamentalist world, unhampered by any intervention by its host country, blatantly initiating terrorist attempts over the international border, constantly and overtly threatening to use its growing arsenal against my country. I wonder if there is even one country within the “organized countries” of the world that would accede for years to the demand to “stay calm”.
As a rule, Israel did its best to “stay calm” and respond very minimally over these past 6 years since moving back to the international border. Our main plea was to the U.N. and the “Major Powers” to influence the Lebanese government into deploying their army along the border.
Two weeks ago, while Israel was already involved with a major kidnapping incident in Gaza, the Hezbollah launched another well planned incursion over the border, killed 3 soldiers, kidnapped 2 soldiers, and then (probably to aid the escape of the kidnappers) opened full fire with rockets and automatic guns at Israeli positions across most of the Lebanese-Israeli border. (keep calm?? O.k. this time it was not a civilian riding a bicycle in the town of Shlomi that was killed by a rocket attack. This time it was only soldiers. Why get so upset?? After all – aren’t soldiers expendable?? No, no, no. our soldiers are there to defend, not to be killed.)
Remember the last straw that broke the camels back? Well, this was a very heavy straw – a baleful. With neither the Lebanese Government, nor the U.N., nor the major European powers, nor the entire gamut of anti-violence organizations, willing to offer any solution for the safety of Israelis from the terrorist threats across the border, our own government had to stop “staying calm” and began the forceful eviction of Hezbollah from southern Lebanon, the destruction of their arsenal and the destruction of their well-developed Beirut Infrastructure.
I am extremely unhappy about this result. I doubt that violence can eradicate violence. For 35 years we have been looking for ways to fend off the terrorism from the Lebanese border. No one has offered a viable solution, other than “stay calm” – essentially turn the other cheek, and prepare for the next slap-in-the-face to be much harder.
You are right. Probably most Lebanese want a cease fire, but their democratic government is unwilling to take responsibility for the border, and unwilling to begin the long hard road of disarming a terrorist organization in its midst. They are very willing for a ceasefire which will leave Israeli citizens still under the threat of terrorist action, while they can turn the other way, free of any responsibility.
You are right. At this juncture probably most Israelis are wary of a ceasefire that will leave the Hezbollah with the continued ability to be a very meaningful threat. Were the Lebanese willing to “take care” of the Hezbollah, I am certain that almost every Israeli would revert once more to “staying calm” and embracing a cease fire.
It therefore seems to me that your comparison of who wants a cease fire and who doesn’t is more than simplistic and naïve. It borders on a demagogic approach to the problem of “how do we defend ourselves” – and not only ourselves. We also have children and grandchildren.
Are we exaggerating?? I hear say that we are using the Hezbollah as a poor excuse for once again “taking Lebanon”, while the Hezbollah are no more than just a small group of extremist terrorists who have no real ability to do damage to life and limb??
How simple it is for one to delude oneself.
The Hezbollah are a proven threat by the facts of their past terrorist activities, and by their show of arsenal strength during these last few days. Many people were certain that Israel was exaggerating about the growing arsenal of rockets being stockpiled against Israel. In the past 11 days the Hezbollah have launched over 2000 rockets into Israeli cities, towns and villages. Their range now covers considerably more than the communities within sight of the border, and they openly threaten with even longer ranging rockets. We believe them. Our kibbutz is already pockmarked with a good number of “hits” both within the area of our homes and all around our fields. Most people have chosen to migrate with their children far southward out of the line of fire. So did my own children and grandchildren. A day after they left a rocket landed a few meters from their home and went through the roof of our local grade school. Other rockets continued to land too close for comfort, but those of us still here have gone either underground or into (relatively) secure rooms. The town of Nahariya, just south of us, is less fortunate. People there have been killed by direct hits, and our Hospital is filling up with the injured.
Yes. I know we are much stronger than the Hezbollah and all of Lebanon combined. I know we have weapons and abilities they can not match. I know that therefore we are considered the “bully” and they are the “underdog”. That makes us the bad guys in your eyes while they are the good guys. Which also means by your logic that in the interests of peace and justice we should be willing to cease fire and go back to the way things were: a terrorist organization attacking us at our doorsteps, building up an even larger arsenal supplied by such purely noble countries as Iran and Syria, and hosted by a country whose government sees nothing wrong with such an arrangement and also accepts this fundamentalist terrorist organization into its parliament and government. Thank you very much for supplying such a just solution.
I too would like to silence the guns and “send over sandwiches and clothes instead” to the people who allow, condone and aid the terrorist activities of the Hezbollah. Someone who has no need to protect his own children and grandchildren can deceive himself in seeing this as a solution. It is total delusion regarding the Hezbollah approach to extreme fundamentalist terror.
Now let’s start talking about solutions……………..
I have none.
I would like to see world pressure on Lebanon to take over southern Lebanon and to disarm the Hezbollah. Unfortunately, world pressure will not come by our “sending over sandwiches”. Perhaps it will come in order to aid western interests (not Lebanese interest) against unbalancing the situation in Lebanon.
I would want the return of the kidnapped soldiers.
I would want the return to Lebanon of captured terrorists, but only after the disarming of the Hezbollah arsenal and the presence of the Lebanese army in southern Lebanon.
I know how difficult it will be to disarm the Hezbollah and that the process may take a long time. Perhaps then, we can engage a settlement on the basis of the Hezbollah announcing unequivocally that they accept the sovereignty of the border as delineated by the United Nations, and will from here on desist from any activity across the border.
Then again, there is a very small territory which the U.N. team claims does not belong to Lebanon, but Hezbollah insists on having it transferred to Lebanon. This too can happen in a situation where the Hezbollah are disarmed and affirm their desisting from any further activities across the border along with the guarantee of the Lebanese government.
O.K. how can any of this happen?? Not without the cooperation of the Lebanese government. Till now we have heard no word from them about willingness to deal with the Hezbollah – only their desire for a cease fire. At long last other countries (France, Germany, Turkey and U.S.) are beginning to pressure and negotiate in that direction. I hope it succeeds. We need to stop shooting before it turns us into the same kind of fanatics that are shooting at us.
People are getting hurt even when there is an attempt to single out only Hezbollah activists and helpers. Unfortunately, not everything which looks like Hezbollah from the air is purely Hezbollah on the ground. These are the difficulties of fighting a terrorist organization that purposefully spins much of its webs within the normal fabric of civilian life. True, the result is such that many rules of “fair” fighting are lost when having to fight terrorists within a civilian population that gives it comfort and shelter. Also, the figures you hear about from Lebanon don’t tell you how many of the casualties are Hezbollah. They haven’t been interested in giving out that information, therefore all casualties are “civilians” only. I wish there were no casualties at all. But after being unwilling to stop terror from Lebanon into Israel, the Lebanese government somewhat reminds me of the young man who murdered his parents and asked the judge for mercy because he is now an orphan. Somehow I wonder what kind of letters you send to Lebanon to the supporters of said “orphan”.
One day a week I have been going into the West Bank to the Palestinian village of Sa’alem near Nablus to protect them against possible harassment by Israeli settlers who I hope will be moved out of their homes soon, like those moved out of Gaza. I do that because I believe the settlers have infringed on the land of legitimate owners and have no right being there, and in any case are morally corrupt in condoning the harassment of other human beings on the basis of their own type of religious fundamentalism.
But the Hezbollah are another story. They want my legitimate home and I’m willing to fight for my home. They want to propel katyushas onto my grandchildren. I can’t allow them the opportunity to do that. This is my basic emotional instinct. I imagine I shall never be a total pacifist. I believe in defending myself as best I can when I run into an enemy whose sole purpose is my demise. I then accept the penalty of being called a “bully” by those who are unwilling or unable to help me protect my grandchildren in other ways.
Of course, at the moment at which I thought our government was attempting to go beyond the necessity of disabling the Hezbollah and the terrorist threat, I will join many other Israelis in public protest. It seems to me that time has not arrived. By the way, I never saw any viable public protest in Lebanon against the actions of the Hezbollah as hosted by the Lebanese government.
Therefore, Oak, I will not spread your message. I have my own. And yes, I think you’ve got it all wrong. Please don’t misunderstand. Your heart is in the right place. But the situation you relate to is at best segmented and at worst – tainted.
Be well and continue working for peace. I shall too.
Aaron Sharif
Kibbutz Gesher Haziv
This week I received a letter written by a British friend of Adar and Carmi. I met him at our house on his way back from a protest against the wall. He, like others, judges our action in Lebanon. I needed to answer him; something of my own personal defense mechanism. To some extent my response glosses over much of my own criticism about many of our actions. Call it natural in the face of outside criticism. I wish I was talented enough to put all this in one small paragraph, but I’m not.
Here is the letter I received:
Innocent people both in Israel and Lebanon are suffering - but there seems to be one difference.
Most Lebanese want a ceasefire.
Most Israelis want the 'war' to continue.
An Israeli ground offensive will destroy what remains of southern Lebanon.
Will this really improve Israel's security? For how long?
Hisbollah are recognized as terrorists by the west.
Israel is destroying a country and killing hundreds of civilians - so what does that make Israel?
Bush and Blair refuse to call for a ceasefire - prefering death and destruction, and risking a wider war.
The BBC reports the evacuation of British citizens from Beirut, and injuries to Israeli citizens, whilst almost ignoring the death and destruction in Lebanon.
Sean says "What if Israel sent over sandwiches and clothes instead of missiles?"Please forward this to your friends to spread this message.If you do not wish to spread this message, if you think I've got it wrong, I would like to hear your thoughts.Oak
This was my response:
Dear Oak.
As I write this I hear the guns.
I don’t like guns. Can I do without them?
For the last 35 years we have had to constantly build and rebuild defenses against terrorist infiltration and katyusha rockets coming across the border from Lebanon. It was not a game. Our people were murdered. Schoolchildren were held hostage in their classroom and slain “for the cause”. A rocket fell only too close for comfort in front of my house with shrapnel flying through the walls of our children’s bedroom, glass shattering over them as they slept. Our army fired back, our air force made small punitive answers. We wanted a Lebanese government to control the Fattah groups that were responsible, but the Lebanese government was not functioning while all the ethnic groups in Lebanon were busy fighting and killing each other.
In 1982 the Israeli army went in to do what the Lebanese were unable and unwilling to do: drive the Fattah groups far from the border. Lebanon was still unable to put together a viable government, and the Israeli public was torn between the need to stay in part of southern Lebanon to keep our border safe, and the need to get out and let the Lebanese once more do what they can to govern and control all of Lebanon including the terrorist organizations. To my mind, it is unfortunate that this internal conflict within the Israeli public lasted till the year 1999. Nevertheless, in that year a number of things happened. Israel announced that its army would leave southern Lebanon on the basis of a major requirement: the Lebanese government would take responsibility for the border with Israel, would place its army in southern Lebanon and would disarm the Hezbollah. The Lebanese Government and the United Nations required of Israel to have a U.N. team delineate the exact international border between the two countries. Israel acceded and so it came to pass. The U.N. passed its resolution for Israel to move over the border delineated by its team in order for the Lebanese army to take control of southern Lebanon.
Israel moved out of southern Lebanon, the Lebanese army did not move in. Since then, not only did the Lebanese government totally ignore its responsibility for southern Lebanon, but it allowed the Hezbollah to become the complete controllers of the area with a constant buildup of arms and equipment from Iran through Syria. Rockets kept flying over onto Israeli communities. Attempts and a few successes were made at kidnapping across the border. The Lebanese Government turned a blind eye with hints of approval. The international community puts no pressure whatsoever on the Lebanese to take control of the border and to disarm the terrorist military organization in their midst. The international community does pressure Israel to “stay calm”. Meanwhile the Hezbollah acquire bigger and more far-reaching rockets: an organization called “terrorist” by the non-fundamentalist world, unhampered by any intervention by its host country, blatantly initiating terrorist attempts over the international border, constantly and overtly threatening to use its growing arsenal against my country. I wonder if there is even one country within the “organized countries” of the world that would accede for years to the demand to “stay calm”.
As a rule, Israel did its best to “stay calm” and respond very minimally over these past 6 years since moving back to the international border. Our main plea was to the U.N. and the “Major Powers” to influence the Lebanese government into deploying their army along the border.
Two weeks ago, while Israel was already involved with a major kidnapping incident in Gaza, the Hezbollah launched another well planned incursion over the border, killed 3 soldiers, kidnapped 2 soldiers, and then (probably to aid the escape of the kidnappers) opened full fire with rockets and automatic guns at Israeli positions across most of the Lebanese-Israeli border. (keep calm?? O.k. this time it was not a civilian riding a bicycle in the town of Shlomi that was killed by a rocket attack. This time it was only soldiers. Why get so upset?? After all – aren’t soldiers expendable?? No, no, no. our soldiers are there to defend, not to be killed.)
Remember the last straw that broke the camels back? Well, this was a very heavy straw – a baleful. With neither the Lebanese Government, nor the U.N., nor the major European powers, nor the entire gamut of anti-violence organizations, willing to offer any solution for the safety of Israelis from the terrorist threats across the border, our own government had to stop “staying calm” and began the forceful eviction of Hezbollah from southern Lebanon, the destruction of their arsenal and the destruction of their well-developed Beirut Infrastructure.
I am extremely unhappy about this result. I doubt that violence can eradicate violence. For 35 years we have been looking for ways to fend off the terrorism from the Lebanese border. No one has offered a viable solution, other than “stay calm” – essentially turn the other cheek, and prepare for the next slap-in-the-face to be much harder.
You are right. Probably most Lebanese want a cease fire, but their democratic government is unwilling to take responsibility for the border, and unwilling to begin the long hard road of disarming a terrorist organization in its midst. They are very willing for a ceasefire which will leave Israeli citizens still under the threat of terrorist action, while they can turn the other way, free of any responsibility.
You are right. At this juncture probably most Israelis are wary of a ceasefire that will leave the Hezbollah with the continued ability to be a very meaningful threat. Were the Lebanese willing to “take care” of the Hezbollah, I am certain that almost every Israeli would revert once more to “staying calm” and embracing a cease fire.
It therefore seems to me that your comparison of who wants a cease fire and who doesn’t is more than simplistic and naïve. It borders on a demagogic approach to the problem of “how do we defend ourselves” – and not only ourselves. We also have children and grandchildren.
Are we exaggerating?? I hear say that we are using the Hezbollah as a poor excuse for once again “taking Lebanon”, while the Hezbollah are no more than just a small group of extremist terrorists who have no real ability to do damage to life and limb??
How simple it is for one to delude oneself.
The Hezbollah are a proven threat by the facts of their past terrorist activities, and by their show of arsenal strength during these last few days. Many people were certain that Israel was exaggerating about the growing arsenal of rockets being stockpiled against Israel. In the past 11 days the Hezbollah have launched over 2000 rockets into Israeli cities, towns and villages. Their range now covers considerably more than the communities within sight of the border, and they openly threaten with even longer ranging rockets. We believe them. Our kibbutz is already pockmarked with a good number of “hits” both within the area of our homes and all around our fields. Most people have chosen to migrate with their children far southward out of the line of fire. So did my own children and grandchildren. A day after they left a rocket landed a few meters from their home and went through the roof of our local grade school. Other rockets continued to land too close for comfort, but those of us still here have gone either underground or into (relatively) secure rooms. The town of Nahariya, just south of us, is less fortunate. People there have been killed by direct hits, and our Hospital is filling up with the injured.
Yes. I know we are much stronger than the Hezbollah and all of Lebanon combined. I know we have weapons and abilities they can not match. I know that therefore we are considered the “bully” and they are the “underdog”. That makes us the bad guys in your eyes while they are the good guys. Which also means by your logic that in the interests of peace and justice we should be willing to cease fire and go back to the way things were: a terrorist organization attacking us at our doorsteps, building up an even larger arsenal supplied by such purely noble countries as Iran and Syria, and hosted by a country whose government sees nothing wrong with such an arrangement and also accepts this fundamentalist terrorist organization into its parliament and government. Thank you very much for supplying such a just solution.
I too would like to silence the guns and “send over sandwiches and clothes instead” to the people who allow, condone and aid the terrorist activities of the Hezbollah. Someone who has no need to protect his own children and grandchildren can deceive himself in seeing this as a solution. It is total delusion regarding the Hezbollah approach to extreme fundamentalist terror.
Now let’s start talking about solutions……………..
I have none.
I would like to see world pressure on Lebanon to take over southern Lebanon and to disarm the Hezbollah. Unfortunately, world pressure will not come by our “sending over sandwiches”. Perhaps it will come in order to aid western interests (not Lebanese interest) against unbalancing the situation in Lebanon.
I would want the return of the kidnapped soldiers.
I would want the return to Lebanon of captured terrorists, but only after the disarming of the Hezbollah arsenal and the presence of the Lebanese army in southern Lebanon.
I know how difficult it will be to disarm the Hezbollah and that the process may take a long time. Perhaps then, we can engage a settlement on the basis of the Hezbollah announcing unequivocally that they accept the sovereignty of the border as delineated by the United Nations, and will from here on desist from any activity across the border.
Then again, there is a very small territory which the U.N. team claims does not belong to Lebanon, but Hezbollah insists on having it transferred to Lebanon. This too can happen in a situation where the Hezbollah are disarmed and affirm their desisting from any further activities across the border along with the guarantee of the Lebanese government.
O.K. how can any of this happen?? Not without the cooperation of the Lebanese government. Till now we have heard no word from them about willingness to deal with the Hezbollah – only their desire for a cease fire. At long last other countries (France, Germany, Turkey and U.S.) are beginning to pressure and negotiate in that direction. I hope it succeeds. We need to stop shooting before it turns us into the same kind of fanatics that are shooting at us.
People are getting hurt even when there is an attempt to single out only Hezbollah activists and helpers. Unfortunately, not everything which looks like Hezbollah from the air is purely Hezbollah on the ground. These are the difficulties of fighting a terrorist organization that purposefully spins much of its webs within the normal fabric of civilian life. True, the result is such that many rules of “fair” fighting are lost when having to fight terrorists within a civilian population that gives it comfort and shelter. Also, the figures you hear about from Lebanon don’t tell you how many of the casualties are Hezbollah. They haven’t been interested in giving out that information, therefore all casualties are “civilians” only. I wish there were no casualties at all. But after being unwilling to stop terror from Lebanon into Israel, the Lebanese government somewhat reminds me of the young man who murdered his parents and asked the judge for mercy because he is now an orphan. Somehow I wonder what kind of letters you send to Lebanon to the supporters of said “orphan”.
One day a week I have been going into the West Bank to the Palestinian village of Sa’alem near Nablus to protect them against possible harassment by Israeli settlers who I hope will be moved out of their homes soon, like those moved out of Gaza. I do that because I believe the settlers have infringed on the land of legitimate owners and have no right being there, and in any case are morally corrupt in condoning the harassment of other human beings on the basis of their own type of religious fundamentalism.
But the Hezbollah are another story. They want my legitimate home and I’m willing to fight for my home. They want to propel katyushas onto my grandchildren. I can’t allow them the opportunity to do that. This is my basic emotional instinct. I imagine I shall never be a total pacifist. I believe in defending myself as best I can when I run into an enemy whose sole purpose is my demise. I then accept the penalty of being called a “bully” by those who are unwilling or unable to help me protect my grandchildren in other ways.
Of course, at the moment at which I thought our government was attempting to go beyond the necessity of disabling the Hezbollah and the terrorist threat, I will join many other Israelis in public protest. It seems to me that time has not arrived. By the way, I never saw any viable public protest in Lebanon against the actions of the Hezbollah as hosted by the Lebanese government.
Therefore, Oak, I will not spread your message. I have my own. And yes, I think you’ve got it all wrong. Please don’t misunderstand. Your heart is in the right place. But the situation you relate to is at best segmented and at worst – tainted.
Be well and continue working for peace. I shall too.
Aaron Sharif
Kibbutz Gesher Haziv
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