Bil‘in - Ma‘an – From the 18th to the 20th of April, Bil‘in, a small village in the west of the occupied Palestinian West Bank, held its Second Annual Conference on Popular Resistance, which was attended by some 400 people from across the world. The first day of the conference was to focus on the boycott, the second on the economy and on the third day, the activities culminated in a mass non-violent demonstration against the construction of the Wall.
Bil‘in is a small and picturesque village that is rapidly being encroached upon by Israel‘s apartheid wall and turned into an open-air prison for its inhabitants. The state of Israel has annexed almost 60% of Bil‘in‘s land for Israeli settlements and the path of the Wall. Israel‘s practices are economically suffocating the small village of Bil‘in, and its struggle for survival has won international support from a global community of activists. The Israeli army destroys more of Bil‘in‘s land daily, and every Friday resistors to the destruction of Bil‘in gather to demonstrate against the “work-site of shame.” The protests have been held weekly for more than two years.
Abbas‘ representative
Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas was on a tour of Europe during the conference, in an attempt to generate support from European nations to end the crippling economic embargo imposed on the Palestinians. In his place, Abbas sent a representative to speak at the conference. The speaker declared, "The Wall is not just an extension wall to increase the territories of Israel, or just a separation wall; it is much worse, it destroys the future and present of the Palestinian people."
The speaker highlighted the fact that the international court of justice found the construction of Israel‘s barrier illegal in 2004 and ordered that it be removed and Palestinians compensated for damages caused by its construction. He also called for the international community to force Israel to abide by its legal commitments.
Luisa Morgantini
Luisa Morgantini is vice-president of the European parliament. Morgantini spoke passionately and expressed her sincerest admiration for the struggle and resistance of the people of Bil‘in. She declared "how it is possible that the international community can believe Israel‘s claims that the Wall is for security? Just look at it. It is an annexation wall to gain as much land as possible. It destroys the lives of Palestinian people and divides them from each other. The international community has done absolutely nothing to stop this."
Morgantini also expressed her deepest support for the ongoing efforts of the people of Bil‘in and declared, "It is very difficult to maintain the approach of non-violent struggle in a situation of violent politics."
Basil Mansour
Basil Mansour is from the Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements in Bil‘in. He told the conference "this poor village lacks many services and infrastructure, but is rich in support." Mansour spoke of how the occupation began over 30 years ago in Bil‘in. The Israeli occupation forces lied to locals, declaring that their land had been bought, or was needed for security reasons. He stated that the Israeli authorities forged documents in order to expropriate the land.
Mansour said "we now face the violence of the occupation, and the settlers, who enjoy an abundance of luxuries, while we live here in desperation. The Wall must be knocked down, or it will seriously threaten the lives of the villagers." He added "the settlers enter the village, like thieves in the night."
Mustafa Barghouthi
Palestinian minister of information, Mustafa Barghouthi, urged Palestinians and internationals to adopt a similar struggle throughout the Palestinian territories, claiming that if this happened, the occupation could not continue.
"Children have to wait for hours at checkpoints, the people are imprisoned in their own towns and cities. If this happened to Jews, the world would be up in arms, there would be a public outcry, it would be called ‘anti-Semitism‘," declared Barghouthi, adding, "Israel practices anti-Semitism in this country."
Barghouthi said that Palestinians, and people in solidarity with Palestinians, should fight against the branding of Palestinians as synonymous with terrorists. He insisted that people strive to reveal the truth about the situation for Palestinians, pointing out that there is no need for propaganda or exaggeration, that “the truth is sufficient to enable people to understand the harsh brutality of the occupying regime”. Not only did Barghouthi call for an honest representation of the Palestinian cause, but for it to be revealed at every opportunity. Barghouthi quoted British author Virginia Woolf: "Nothing has happened if it hasn‘t been described."
Barghouthi concluded by highlighting the fact that Israel has rejected every Arab peace offer, including the Arab Peace Initiative, which it deemed "disappointing". Barghouthi declared that “the disappointment lies in Israel‘s craving for land, not peace”. He stated, "Olmert sends a clear message of non-acceptance of a sovereign Palestinian state; he will only accept a Palestine under occupation."
Barghouthi ended on a positive note, describing Bil’in and the conference as "an example of peace and cooperation, which will prevail in the future."
Amira Hass
Amira Hass writes for the Israeli daily newspaper, Haaretz, she lives in Ramallah, in the West Bank, and reports on events from a Palestinian perspective. She spoke of the role of the media in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and discussed the great power the media has in reversing the unjust practices of the Israeli occupation. She detailed occasions when she had questioned Israel‘s practices as a reporter and affected a change, including the unlawful expropriation of Palestinian goods at checkpoints, which she stopped by threatening to report it in Haaretz.
Whilst acknowledging the vast bloodshed at the hands of the Israeli forces, Hass said that the biggest Israeli crime is the loss of the time and space for Palestinians; the seemingly minor crimes and daily hardships of the Palestinians, caused by Israel‘s oppressive policies. She said that she strives to find new and exciting ways to represent the daily loss of time and space of the Palestinians.
Hass said that Israel claims to be a democracy, but it is merely a democracy for Jews. She questioned how Israel can occupy more and more land, if it claims to have no colonialist ambitions. She said finally, "The occupation continues unhindered because Israel benefits from the occupation."
Ilan Pappe
As well as being an eminent Jewish author and historian, Ilan Pappe is senior lecturer in the department of political science at Haifa University. Pappe opened his speech by declaring that the departure point for any discussion about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict should be an acknowledgement that this land is already one state ruled by one regime. He stated "we are all under the rule of an ideological regime that imposes one Jewish rule."
Pappe pointed out that the current Israeli ruling elite speak very clearly about Jewish ideologies. He said "the Israeli elite have lost the inertia and the capacity to navigate between the true Jewish ideologies and attempts to delude the world." He continued, "The political elite of Israel implement a Jewish state with as few Palestinians as possible in it."
Pappe announced that people that oppose this Jewish state should "send a message that this is not acceptable in civilized nations, preach boycott, divestment and sanctions." He drew attention to the "strong undercurrents in the West of people who recruit themselves to the Palestinian struggle." But, Pappe said, there is one major obstacle to the success of these movements that oppose Israel. He declared "the only obstacle that faces these huge energies is the fear of being depicted as anti-Semitic. Let‘s leave behind this fear, especially the people of Germany and especially because of the holocaust, the Germans should say ‘we cannot accept this occupation; it is a shameful legacy to allow Israelis to do to Palestinians what Nazis did to Jews‘."
Pappe, as a leading pedagogue in Israel, spoke of the indoctrination of Israelis with respect to the Palestinians. "Israeli society is monolithic, not in everything, not on popular culture, sport, and music; but on the Palestinian issue. The educational system educates Israelis from cradle to grave to view Palestinians as subhuman."
Pappe proclaimed, "People must understand the connection between the apartheid wall, persecution of Arabs and the massacre of 1948, all are Israeli policies, all are designed to dispossess Palestinians from Palestine."
Mohamed Shtaye
The second day of the international conference opened with a panel discussion from Mohamed Shtaye, Sam Bahour and George Rishmawi on economic independence. Shtaye opened by stating that “any economic system must exist within a political framework, and the current Palestinian economic crisis has nothing to do with laziness, infertile land, or lack of resources; it is simply a result of the military siege that has been imposed on the Palestinian people since [the year] 2000.”
Shtaye described how the Palestinian economy has been made dependent on Israel. Israel controls Palestinian borders, imports, exports and production. The Palestinian economy, said Shtaye, has been systematically weakened and destroyed by the Israeli occupation. He highlighted that the dependency of the Palestinian economy on Israel is not the choice of Palestinians, "It has been imposed by the might of a military dictatorship." He said that the Palestinian economy needs to be liberated from the Israeli economy.
Electricity, telecommunications, roads, borders, all are controlled by Israel, said Shtaye, adding "Israelis switch off the electricity to Palestinians towns." He said "Palestinian roads used to go from north to south to link West Bank towns, now they go from east to west to serve the Israeli settlements."
In the early days of the Israeli occupation, said Shtaye, land confiscation was used as a way to force Palestinians to leave their land and become cheap labourers in the Israeli market. Many labourers left their land to work in Israel only to return to find it had been annexed. There had been up to 120,000 cheap Palestinian labourers in the Israeli market, but now they are unemployed. Palestinian unemployment has reached 55%.
Shtaye described how the trade relations between Israel and the Palestinian territories are unidirectional. Palestinians cannot export because Israel controls the borders, yet it simultaneously imposes Israeli goods on the Palestinian markets at Israeli prices, even though the average annual income in Israel is $17,000, yet for Palestinians it is a mere $800 US per person per year. Shtaye said that the Palestinian economy has been divorced from its Arab allies by strict border controls and made weak and dependent on Israel.
Shtaye described the huge imbalance in the economies of occupied and occupier. He said "while settlers swim in modern swimming pools, Palestinians don‘t have enough water to drink. The sewage from settlements goes into Palestinian valleys and causes total pollution of Palestinian water."
Sam Bahour
Bahour opened by declaring that Bil‘in‘s "steadfastness will be registered in the annals of history."
He questioned how it is possible to "integrate a future Palestinian economy into a US dominated world under the brutal military occupation that is acting in front of the world today." Bahour described the dire economic situation for Palestinians, "Sanctions against the occupied people are driving us to despair, poverty and lawlessness, while our leadership drinks tea with the occupier."
Bahour expressed the interminable dependence of the Palestinian economy on Israel‘s economy, "The umbilical cord is weaved into every one of our sectors and the Oslo accords keep the cord attached."
Bahour described how Palestinian businesses should be the foundations of the Palestinian economy and, he said, they have not failed, but they need to be scrutinised. He elucidated how a successful Palestinian business is one which is steadfast in the face of adversity, not complicit with the occupation; one which supports Palestinians, rather than extracting huge profits from the occupied people.
Bahour conveyed how the occupying forces are present in every area of Palestinian life. Israeli products are on Palestinian shelves; electricity, water and telecommunications are all controlled by Israel. Bahour said "Israel controls electricity; the hand of the occupier controls our light switches. Israel controls telecommunications; the hand of the occupier controls our conversations. Israel controls the checkpoints; the hand of the occupier controls the sweat of our labourers."
"The occupier is drunk on power and bent on the destruction of the fabric of Palestinian society," said Bahour.
He described how Israel created conditions in which the Palestinian workforce had to leave their homes to find new livelihoods, and families were separated. He described this process as "sterile ethnic cleansing."
Bahour said that the current state of Palestine is incompatible with viability and questioned what Palestinians can do. He declared "we don‘t know how to win, but we know how not to lose." He added "most communities would buckle under these odds, but we have built successful industries."
Bahour concluded by quoting a Jewish Rabbi that once said, "There is nothing more whole than a broken heart," adding "but it is not too easy to see from within."
Jeff Halper
Jeff Halper is an American-Israeli human rights activist and founder of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD). Halper explained that “the Israeli public is passive in the face of the widespread abuse and persecution of Palestinians.” He described the Israeli public‘s attitude as "irresponsible." He said "the public don‘t want peace, they want peace and quiet." As a result, the responsibility to react to the many violations of human rights in the occupied territories is with the international community, said Halper.
“Human rights movements must adopt the term apartheid”, insisted Halper. This term, said Halper, "is not just a slogan, but is in the process of being constructed before us."
"Tzipi Livni [Israeli foreign minister] collaborates with Condoleezza Rice to construct an apartheid system," said Halper. "They create smoke screens in the form of meetings with Abbas. But this black, African American US citizen, Rice, is constructing a new apartheid system in the world."
"In May, 2006, Olmert presented his convergence plan in Washington. Note: he always presents plans before Congress, not the Knesset. The idea is one of apartheid, the line of the Wall."
Halper described how Israel now has two eastern borders; the first is that of the wall, deemed the demographic border. He pointed out that Ehud Barak was voted-in in 1999 under the slogan "us here, them there." The second eastern border is the Jordan River, the security border. "Palestinians are squeezed between the demographic border and the security border, which divide the West Bank into Bantustans," said Halper.
Halper said that Bush and Blair‘s response to Olmert‘s presentation before Congress was to insist that he does not act unilaterally, that he pays at least lip service to the Road Map and presents the illusion that he is attempting to negotiate with the Palestinians for one year. "That year is almost over and Condi has been visiting every month, cooking up the convergence plan," said Halper.
"The provisional border becomes permanent and Israel seizes 85% of the territory, leaving Palestinians with 15% of dotted Bantustans."
"This is institutional, systematic domination, with the complicity of Europe, done in a low-key, finessed way." Halper declared, "an anti-apartheid campaign must be launched internationally."
Halper stated that the terminology of the campaign is integral to its success, emphasizing that the term ‘apartheid‘ must be used by movements resisting the occupation. He said that there should be a reframing of the language of the conflict, bearing in mind that Israel‘s framing is very powerful. "Israel casts itself as the victim defending itself in order to evade responsibility." However, Halper pointed out "the construction of 300 settlements is proactive not defensive, the security barrier expropriates land."
Halper highlighted that "Israel presents itself as a democracy, when in fact it is an ethnocracy that favours the transfer of Arab citizens out of Israel."
Demonstration
Three days of discussions, talks and workshops culminated in the attendees of the Second Annual Conference on Popular Resistance taking to the streets in a non-violent demonstration against the construction of the Wall.
Travelling towards the demonstration, we witnessed several ambulances speeding away from the area. The demonstration consisted of around 100 unarmed international activists, walking towards dozens of Israeli troops armed with rifles, teargas canisters, and reinforced by several military jeeps and a water cannon vehicle.
The Israeli military met the non-violent demonstrators with violence. The soldiers were positioned in several strategic places to enable them to shoot at demonstrators from all angles. The soldiers shot blazing hot teargas canisters directly at the demonstrators, as well as spiked, rubber-coated steel bullets at those who came within range of the army. Every few minutes Red Crescent ambulance workers ran into the demonstration to pick up the injured and transport them to hospital. The Israeli soldiers shot teargas at the ambulance workers as they attempted to reach the injured.
Among those injured was Nobel Peace Prize winner, Mairead Maguire, from Northern Ireland. She was shot in the leg and gave tearful interviews to the international media, condemning the dire situation for Palestinians.
A demonstrator from Puerto Rico, Tito Kayak, managed to scale an Israeli military watchtower on the Israeli side and fly the Palestinian flag from the top, over Israeli security cameras. He allegedly had with him a sleeping bag and enough supplies to last two days at the top of the watchtower. Kayak has since been arrested and detained for over 96 hours by the Israeli military.
The demonstration ended when the Israeli soldiers surrounded themselves by teargas from every angle so that the demonstrators could not approach them, before making a getaway.