Ancient Warning System

Riding the train from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem I sat across from a 22 year old Lietenant in the Israeli army. He was very nice and we had an interesting discussion about how fast kids in Israel have to grow up because of the mandatory military service beginning at age 18. I thought about this fact at the Tel Aviv train station as I watched tons of kids that looked like they were still in high school carrying around automatic weapons. The train sped through farmland outside Tel Aviv and soon began to wind up the hills in the Jerusalem heights. The climb up to Jerusalem was gorgeous and the hills were filled with olive orchards. A number of the orchards had been cut down, one of the many ways of punishing Palestinians for bad behavior.

I caught a taxi at the end of the line outside of Jerusalem and rode to the Damascus gate in the Muslim quarter with a fellow named Lulu. The Damascus gate is one of seven entrances to the old city (I've heard different numbers but Lulu assured me he was correct). His driving made me think he had a death wish. I immediately put my seatbelt on and cluthched the o shit handle until the end of the ride. Twenty shekels later I was outside the towering walls of the Old City. I asked some arabs drinking turkish coffee how to get to the bus station and they directed me down a narrow alley. I found the bus to Ramallah, put my bag in the back and took my seat. I started a conversation with a little girl in broken arabic and soon remembered that talking to a girls who I'm not related to is haram (forbidden). The bus wound through the hills outside Jerusalem towards the unofficial Palestinian capital Ramallah. We drove along the seperation barrier for a few miles and eventually went through a number of military checkpoints. Snipers in towers pointed their weapons at every passing car, a very eerie feeling. Eventually we arrived at an underground bus station next to a crowded marketplace. The first guy I asked for directions had mental issues, but some nice old men saw the problem and pointed me to the Huwarra checkpoint bus. You cannot drive or take a bus all the way to Nablus, you have to get off at the checkpoint, walk through, and take another bus. As I was sitting down I dropped a shekel (about 30 cents) and it rolled to the back of the bus. Distracted and a bit nervous I didn't go to retrieve it. A couple minutes later a little girl tapped me on the shoulder and handed it back. The small gesture broke my heart. Here is a girl whose parents were probably either unemployed or living in poverty, partly because of policies supported by my country, and she retrieved and returned my shekel. I cannot begin to articulate how kind and generous Palestininas have been to me, even after finding out I'm from America.

It was not difficult to cross the Huwarra checkpoint into Nablus but there were hundreds of people waiting to get out, most of them get refused, even with all the proper permits and paperwork. I rode in a shared taxi to the Funduq al Yasmeen (yasmeen hotel) in downtown Nablus. As I got out a kid ran down the stairs. He went to grab my bag and I explained that I just needed to make a phone call. He replied in broken english, “I know, we called Hasan, he's on his way to get you.” We walked up through a maze of stone hallways filled with ancient looking columns. The place looked and felt sort of like an mc escher drawing.

Hasan soon arrived and we drove to the volunteer flat and Porject Hope office. I signed some papers and met most of the other volunteers. Our flat is like an international commune. Volunteers came from france, holland, iceland, belgium, california, scotland, and norway. The flat is located midway up the hills overlooking Nablus. Atop the adjacent hills sits an Israeli patriot missle base and another large military base. At night you can watch military vehicals winding down the switchbacks to conduct raids. With the infrared feature activated on video camras you can see which houses have been “painted” that night for invasion. Nablus has a sort of ancient warning system. When the army comes down for raids all the dogs start barking, which wakes up the roosters. Within minutes the entire town is enveloped in a symphony of barking, cuckooing, and small arms fire. Sleeping the last couple nights has been tough with the rabid misquitos, sirens, and occasional bursts of automatic gunfire. The call to prayer just began, hearing it echo through the Nablusi valley is incredibly majestic.

The first night here we were invited to the wedding of one of our coordinators. Needless to say, they do things a little differently. I'll have to tell you about that experience at some point.

Settler Problem

You may have hear or read about Israeli "settlers" and "settlement activity" in the news. Describing Israels violent land grabs as "settlement activity" is like referring to the whole of Vietnam as a "police action." The "settlers" have branded their ruthless policies with similarly unsettling euphemisms like "Mutual Concern" and "Price Tag." "Settlers" are not pastoral peace loving hippies. They threaten and often kill the Palestinians whose land they steal. If the Palestinians retaliate, the IDF comes to the settlers rescue. They cut down fields of 300-year-old olive trees, build concertina barbwire fences around their newly occupied land and man trenches with military issue rifles. They murder Palestinian shepards and steal their livestock. The "price tag" and "mutual concern" policies explicitly offer rewards for dead Palestinians, they'll give you a $50,000 to kill a Palestinian in the West Bank. Want to murder a moderate Israeli scholar or peace activist, you might fetch $100,000. These people are nothing more than contract killers, thugs, people determined to drive every last Palestinian off what they consider their rightful land according to their fundamentalist understanding of the Old Testament. Many of them are first generation immigrants driving out families that have been there for a thousand years. In a real democracy these people would spend life in prison. These "settlers" are so psychotic and malicious they even fire on the IDF soldiers sent to protect them and their illegal outposts

Can you imagine? One day people speaking a different language show up and put their trailer in your backyard. You're not home so your kid goes out to see what the fuss is all about. If he or she is lucky they get beat up and stoned, many don't fare that well. The family olive orchard, handed down from your great grandfather, your livelihood , has a large fence around it. Whatever they can't protect for themselves they destroy. The semblance of government you have cannot lift a finger. Soon the government of the settlers sends soldiers, not to return your land but to protect the people who stole it. The tragedy doesn't end there. In a matter of weeks your neighbors land has also been stolen. A compound emerges on a hill where your sheep used to graze. The people occupying it shoot at you and your family for amusement. Even if they don't kill you, soon you'll be so terrified that your family will move to another village, or a refugee camp. More than likely the same thing will repeat itself at your new residence. You can't leave the country. The only place you're safe from the "settlers" is a refugee camp where instead of rogue settlers your concrete shelter is raided regularly by IDF combat units. You decide whether there's any dignity or humanity left for them to steal.

Below is a letter, please send it to your senators and representative. Most of you are more well educated and articulate than myself, feel free to write your own version. Send it over and over. This is a human rights catastrophe, and we're (US taxpayers) are paying for the walls and soldiers that protect these extremist settlers. They're even using our money to help fly these people to Israel to occupy the land.

Best Regards,

Mike

Dear Honorable Senator/Representative (...),
I am writing because I would like you to reconsider your stance on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Every year the United States delivers it largest foreign aid package to Israel (ranging from 2.5 billion this year to an estimated 3.1 billion in 2010. The most recent Memorandum of Understanding signed between the US and Israel pledges to give Israel $30 billion over the next 10 years). As a taxpayer and a patriot I would like our foreign aid, especially such a substantial amount, to be used in the best interest of the United States. Unqualified support for Israeli policies has been an unmitigated disaster in terms of achieving US strategic objectives and promoting stability throughout the Middle East. Our aid to Israel needs to serve the best interests of United States. Additionally, most citizens of Israel are for policies that will foster a peaceful and prosperous relationship with their Palestinian neighbors. A small fringe group of settlers, who often engage in terrorist acts (policies like "Mutual Concern" and "Price tag," in which they hire contract killers to kill Israeli peace activists and Palestinian civilians) are preventing a lasting peace. An issue of major concern is the proliferation of illegal Israeli settlements. These settlements are against stated US policies, they're against international law, and they're against the best interests of Israel. Sufficient pressure on the government of Israel will lead to a resolution of the conflict, and and peace between Israelis and Palestinians will have the following effects:

1) Iran's anti-Israel messages will no longer appeal to the Arab world, Iran will be truly isolated, giving us more leverage to deal with them

2)Terrorist groups will lose their main and most important talking point

3)Autocrats throughout Middle East will no longer be able to distract their own populations with plight and injustice suffered by Palestinians, leading to reform within their own societies

5) A major humanitarian crisis will begin to be resolved (Palestine has more refugees than any place on the planet)

8) Most Israelis want peace on terms Palestinians have already agree to (Israelis get 78% of land, Palestinians get 22%), it's the fringe on Israeli side preventing resolution

9) Peace is in the best interest of Israel

Thank you for your time Senator/Congressman (...).
Sincerely,

Celebrating Eid al Fitr, the end of Ramadan

I've arrived safely at my destination, what an amazing journey that was, but I want to tell you about things before leaving. The checkpoints just opened today, following the end of the Jewish holiday Rosh Hashana. A few nights ago we celebrated Eid al Fitr, the Muslim holiday marking the end of Ramadan. We celebrated with a Muslim Palestinian family living in Israel in a town called Tira. We drove down streets lined with palm trees and filled with scantily clad Israeli women. A little farther down the road the street lights, women, and newly paved sidewalks dissappeared. Our hosts were wonderful people, I won't use their names to spare them an interrogation. The husband used to work for the UN but is now a genetic engineer at a university. The wife, a lifelong teacher. They invited us in for fresh squeezed strawberry juice and dates. Soon a rather ecclectic mix of guests arrived. The defense attache from the US embassy arrived with his southern belle trophy wife. The next couple came from Tel Aviv where the husband works in the defense industry and his wife is a cnosultant.

The weapons salesman immediately laid into the Defense attache, telling him "I've been having trouble with your people, they won't let this semi conductor deal go through." The DA politely explained that he had nothing to do with those transactions and that such delays were common in bureaucracies." The conversation drifted from topic to topic. My uncle said this was probably the one place where it would be ok to answer honestly about what I'm doing here. Soon the Defense Attaches wife asked "so what brings you to Israel?" I told her I was starting a teaching job. She asked where. I hesitantly said Nablus. She looked at me as if I'd just given her an enema with a popsicle. She forced a polite smile back onto her face and ended theconversation there.

Later in the evening we heard a series of loud pops and bangs. Everyone became noticably nervous until the hosts reassured us that it's customary to shoot off fireworks at the end of Ramadan. After dinner some guests left. We went outside to have tea. The air felt wonderful and it was a really quiet night. Soon we began to discuss discrimination against Israeli Muslims (the Palestinians who have sort of been absorbed into the Israeli state). The people in Tire pay the same taxesbut their town was a run down ghetto compared to Israeli Jewish city just a couple miles away. Their mayor, all the teachers and the school board have to be approved by the Mossad. I checked to make sure I heard the host correctly, you mean the Mossad like the security agency? The host explained how the Mossad simply barred well educated people who weren't willing to be minions from running for mayor, working as teachers, or serving in the school board. This is especially significant because they are Tira's only real forms of representation since it is to small to have a representative in the Knesset (basically Israels congress). During the last election they couldn't find a well educated citizen who was sufficiently submissive so they choose someone with a fourth grade education. The result was that the city was being run into the ground, the schools texts filled with offensive propaganda, and the land sold to immigrating Israeli Jews for cut rate prices.

Our host was not some gun weilding firebrand nut. He has a doctorate in genetics and chemistry, he's lived in Kenya, Toronto, Michigan, France, worked for the UN, and is now employed at a prestigious university. His descriptions didn't emerge like some out of control rant. He sat there with a profound sense of despair and quietly described the reality in the small town he loved so dearly. Their child recieved racist death threats at school, the administration refused to do anything. Because of the mothers insistence that the principal or school board do something, anything, the mother, who had previously worked at the school was barred from doing so the next year (and presumably ever). The town pleaded with the government for three years to put up 1 stoplight at a notoriously dangerous intersection, it had only recently been erected. The host hadn't seen their family, just 8 miles away, almost within sight, for 10 years because of the maze of checkpoints and refusal to issue Palestinians travel permits. The police wouldn't respond to calls, would not come to pick up known drug dealers, would not investigate crimes. The police would not do any of the things they were doing just three miles away. Before I came here I thought Israel was a bastion of democracy in the Middle East. Israel is a vibrant democracy like African Americans were equal under seperate but equal laws.

Salam
Mike

Getting through Customs

Hey everyone,

How to start? For those of you who don't know what I'm up to, I'm starting a teaching job in a town called Nablus, which is located in the West Bank. I'll be teaching english, photography, and computer science. The organiazation I work for is also setting up centers called Bridges to the World where Palestinian refugees can write blogs and sign up for online college courses. I'm here on a tourist visa because people working with palestinians in the occupied territories aren't allowed to enter the country. In the London airport I was busy marking my tourist book with sites that I would be "visiting." I carefully arranged my backpack so that all my tourist cover would be seen first by Israeli security. I nervously rehearsed my answers to any questions I thought I would be asked by customs agents. While on the plane from London to Tel Aviv I tried to think about anything but my emminent encounter with visa /customs agents. My nervousness was exacerbated by the fact that back in the states I'm being investigated by the fbi, likely related to my contacts with Palestinians and advocacy of a more balanced US foreign policy. Frankly, I'm not sure, they've not contacted me, only questioned former employers and people associated with me. When I arrived at Ben Gurion international airport it was virtually deserted. After taking a nervous pee, I arrived at the visa booths, forcing a smile and trying to import a look of giddy excitement into my eyes. Three women inhabited the foreign passport booths. I handed a large ornery looking woman my passport and flight information waiting for the question "so what exactly are you going to do in this tiny country for nine months?" Instead she asked "What's the purpose of your visit?" "Tourism" I replied. "Where are you going" she shot back, carefully examining my face. "All over really, Eliat, Jerusalem, Nazareth..." "Do you know anyone here?" "Yeah, my uncle lives in...he works there." I desperately hoped she wouldn't want to talk to him as I hadn't had a chance to explain the situation fully. I was also reticent to mention or his family for fear of jepordizing the wonderful life he and his family have started here.

She stamped my passport and I was on my way. I figured there would be at least one more rung of checks, after all this place has a fierce reputation for tight security and use of military and interrogation tactics to scare the truth out of people. My uncle was waiting there, we said our hellos and tried to make our way out of the airport. I say tried because we left and re-entered at least 5 times attempting to find the parking lot. It was almost 9 pm and the traffic was bumper to bumper. It's hard to overstate the insanity of Israeli drivers. The lines between lanes might as well have not existed. Bumpers on every car looked like they had been hit on a daily basis. Motorcyclists wove in and out of the chaotic traffic. I read that more Israelis have died in car accidents over the years than in all the wars and terrorism incidents combined. Within 15 minutes this fact was not difficult to believe. Gotta go, but I'll keep in touch. Feel free to contact me whenever, and if you want to be taken off the e-mail list just let me know. If you know anyone who might want to be added, I'd be happy to do so.

Shalom,

Mike