[Peace-discuss] AOTA Comment #1: Palestinians & Israel

[C. G. Estabrook]

[This is one of a series of comments prepared for "AWARE on the Air,"
a production of the Anti-War Anti-Racism-Effort of Champaign-Urbana,
on Urbana Public Television (cable channel 6) Tuesdays at 10:00pm.]

I want to talk about a concern I have had for a long time -- the Palestinians. 
First, I am not Palestinian, nor Jewish -- but a mix of about 12 other 
nationalities, including Native American and 10th generation American.  So my 
concern comes from my heart -- and my head.

First, I believe the Jewish people have legitimate security concerns.......and I 
believe the Palestinians have legitimate justice claims.

I was fortunate to visit Israel about 20 years ago with a group of women from 
Middle East Children’s Alliance and Grandmothers for Peace.  We were led by a 
Jewish woman, Barbara Lubin, who has deep concern for both Palestinians and the 
Jewish people.  I have traveled a great deal, but this was the most powerful 
trip I have taken.

We started in Lebanon, then Jordan, where we even had tea and dialog with Queen 
Noor.  The change when we crossed into the Israeli-occupied West Bank was 
overwhelming.  The border security, the military presence and their very obvious 
weapons were intimidating.

Though we headquartered in a small hotel a block from the Damascus gate of the 
old walled city of Jerusalem, we traveled extensively in the occupied 
territories of the West Bank and spent overnights in both Gaza and Golan 
Heights.  We visited refugee camps, Jewish settlements, health clinics, day care 
centers, and the Holocaust Museum.  We met with Palestinian and Israeli peace 
workers, with Soviet Jews, with Palestinian torture victims, with mothers, and 
young people.  We stood with the courageous “Women in Black,” went to the holy 
places, and attended a young Palestinian man’s wake.

We were shown the English and American tree parks.  As a child, along with many, 
many others, I had sent a dollar to plant a tree in Israel.  We learned there, 
though, that Palestinian homes and villages had been bulldozed to provide places 
for those trees.  In the Golan Heights, particularly, we saw so many bulldozed 
remains of homes.  Many Palestinians were evicted on the spot, leaving their 
possessions, even family pictures on the walls.  Today’s Israel sits on the 
former sites of more than 400 now-vanished Palestinian villages.  Israelis have 
renamed almost every physical site in the country to cover up the traces.

Everywhere we heard of the effects of the occupation on the living of the 
Palestinians: curfews, expulsions, border controls, imprisonment, torture, 
killings, and domination of physical and economic life.   Israel allots 85% of 
the water resources for Jews and the remaining 15% is divided among all 
Palestinians.  How that works out, for example, in Hebron 85% of the water is 
given to about 400 settlers, while 15% must be divided among Hebron’s 120,000 
Palestinians.   Even electricity is doled out or not available to Palestinians. 
  93% of the land in Israel -- what was Palestine --  is now reserved for Jewish 
use only.  That leaves 7% for the Palestinians.  And 11,000 Palestinian 
political prisoners are in Israeli jails.

Even at the time of my trip -- 20 years ago -- the Palestinian refugee camps in 
the Occupied Territories, some under the auspices of the UN, were appalling -- 
Gaza in particular -- far worse than any I saw in war-torn Central America.  Raw 
sewage ran in shallow gullies alongside children playing in the streets.  Small 
crude houses were usually home to three or more families, Israeli soldiers were 
constantly coming and going, and health facilities were almost bare of supplies.

 From what I read -- and the little we hear and see, courtesy of our media, the 
picture has not improved.

This month it is 60 years since the establishment of the state of Israel and 
750,000 Palestinians became refugees in their own land.  More than 6 million are 
still living far from their homes as a result of this establishment that 
uprooted them from their homeland in 1948.

It obviously looks like genocide.  How could a people who suffered through the 
Holocaust do this to another people?  I never have been able to understand this.

And now more weapons than rocks and guns are involved -- suicide bombers, tanks, 
missiles, fighter jets, helicopter gunships, and 100s of nuclear warheads.
Israel claims its nuclear program is intended for civilian use, although 
thousands of civilians have died at the hands of its military.  Israel has 
already used its F-16 fighter jets against civilian populations.  Our country 
has given them their nuclear reactor and built their Dimona nuclear plant, so 
they have nuclear bombs and missiles; they are second only to us in nuclear 
power.  In 1994 it was estimated that they had 200 nuclear bombs; today it is 
believed that the number has doubled.  They also now have laser guided smart 
bombs and cluster bombs.  And we are giving them $3 billion in assistance each year.

What can we do?  That is a big question.  Obviously we can listen more 
carefully, realizing that we are essentially hearing one side.  Pro-Israel 
forces in this country have a stranglehold on our Congress and on public 
discussion of Israel’s action.  The second most powerful LOBBY is the Israeli 
AIPAC. We can work to STOP THE MONEY.   Our tax dollars pay for the Apartheid 
Wall that divides families, the weapons that kill children, the thousands of 
settlements that steal land, the bulldozers that demolish homes, and the 
helicopters that drop bombs on whole apartment buildings.

There is a small ray of hope that comes with wide-spread skepticism about its 
ability to hold.  A six month truce, which Egypt labored for months to conclude, 
between Israel and Gaza Strip militants took effect last week.

And one more small ray -- about Jerusalem.  Jerusalem is a sacred city to Jews, 
Christians, and Muslims.  All long for Jerusalem to be the City of Peace. 
“Churches for Middle East Peace,” a group in Washington, DC, is working for 
Jerusalem to shared by all -- two peoples and three religions.

	--LINDA WEBBER
	  24 June 2008