Date posted: 08/06/2011
It is Sunday in Palestine, a regular work day for most, but today is different. There is a certain feeling in the air. It is a feeling of anticipation, excitement, anxiety—or maybe that is just how I am feeling as I prepare to head toward the protests at the Qalandiya checkpoint, the Israeli military crossing separating Ramallah and Jerusalem, neighbors from neighbors.
Perhaps the reason why I am nervous is because I know what to expect, the potential consequences, and I choose to go regardless. I want to show solidarity with the Palestinian people who are demanding their freedom, yet I know that once I stand among that crowd, my American passport ceases to mean anything. I am the same as a Palestinian in the eyes of the Israeli soldiers manning it. I become the enemy. The tear gas canisters and the rubber bullets do not discriminate, nor the live ammunition which was used in similar protests just weeks ago on May 15. Fourteen nonviolent protestors were shot and killed and many more were injured that day.
Israel explains that it is simply protecting its sovereignty, as any state would do. There are some issues with this statement, however. Pulling the sovereignty card presumes that there are established borders, which Israel has thus far avoided establishing in order to continue its occupation, annexation, and colonization of Palestine. The bloodiest site of the protests, the Syrian Golan Heights, in which at least 20 were killed on June 5, is occupied by Israel. East Jerusalem is also occupied by Israel, both captured in the 1967 war. On these recent bloody Sundays, May 15 and June 5, Palestinians marked the dates in both 1948 and 1967 respectively, in which hundreds of thousands were displaced and barred from returning. In reality, the protesters attempting to return on these days were not threatening Israeli sovereignty-- they were simply attempting to comply with previous UN resolutions that mandate their right to return.
The Israeli army and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were quick to paint the protestors as threats to the citizens of Israel. Netanyahu claimed that “extremists around us [were] trying to breach our borders, and threaten our towns and citizens”; a familiar tactic of playing off of the existential fears of the public while also trying to paint a picture much different than the ones we have seen during the Arab Spring of peaceful Arab protesters shaking off the yoke of oppressive regimes. Israel must take these steps in order to stifle international sympathy and to make sure that people see the Palestinians in a different light—as violent and extreme, trying to “threaten” the citizens of Israel. The Palestinians’ demand for freedom must be discredited because such a result would topple the current status quo, which Israel is desperately trying to preserve. In some regards, their tactics have worked since mainstream media reports deem Palestinian nonviolence as a new concept, when in reality, Palestinians have been protesting non-violently for years.
At midday, my friend and I hailed a cab to head for the demonstration. Our driver was Adeeb Abu Rahmah, a man recently released from Ofer military prison after 18 months for organizing nonviolent demonstrations in his village of Biilin. This tiny village has garnered some international attention due to its weekly protests against the separation barrier’s route, which cuts the residents off from their own farmland. Nonviolent leaders are often arrested on bogus charges in an attempt by Israel to contain the movement. Abu Rahmah pulled out pictures from his glove box, one of him holding a victory sign upon release and another of him lying wounded, having been shot four times by the Israeli army. It was only fitting that such a man was the one to drop us off among the swirling crowd of protestors-- further proof that the resistance is everywhere in this land. We stood among the people-- Palestinians, internationals, journalists, and we observed the situation beneath the backdrop of the grotesque and towering separation barrier. I caught a glimpse of some protestors’ signs that read “To Jerusalem we go” and “Freedom is a human right”. Another group of protestors marched toward us, chanting and preparing to converge with our group. It was then that I noticed a team of soldiers descending quickly towards us.
Before we had time to react, the firing started. Tear gas canisters shot into the crowd, into the air, up the street, everywhere. They exploded in front of shops, on the backs of trucks stuck in traffic, near the elementary school. We started running but there was nothing we could do to escape because the canisters were exploding in front of us and behind us simultaneously, the irony of our American tax dollars exploding in our faces.
A Palestinian girl my age grabbed onto me, choking, and then collapsed to the ground. There was nothing I could do, for I could not breathe either.
Dozens suffered from inhalation throughout the day and I witnessed tear gas canisters being fired directly at ambulances that were gathering the injured. Not surprisingly, reports of such behavior from the Israeli army are not uncommon, and all fear-evoking tactics imaginable are employed. The protests, however, were not over. They carried on throughout the day as did the excessive use of force—rubber-coated steel bullets, skunk water, pepper spray, more rounds of tear gas. Soldiers infiltrated the area and occupied houses and rooftops. Yet, the protests still continued. It should be noted that the soldiers’ violent dispersal of the peaceful demonstration began before there were any attempts of Palestinians to breach the checkpoint. After my unhealthy dose of tear gas, I watched from afar, not wanting to experience it again.
I watched in admiration as the Palestinians kept going back, demanding their freedom through their courageous presence in front of the soldiers. The Palestinians are up against a powerful machine, not only of a military power bolstered by US support, but of propaganda in the media as well. History shows, however, that the strategies of the oppressor can only work for so long.
May 15 and June 5 were reminders that Israel’s “refugee problem” as they refer to it, must be reckoned with. The past, which Israel thought could be erased or contained, is ascending quickly upon the present-- a present that is unsustainable and volatile. Nevertheless, the Palestinians will keep pushing, amassing an intense pressure on Israel until the uncomfortable facts are faced. Unlike the other pressing issues, the refugees and their descendants are living, breathing human beings who do not forget, and whose rights cannot be negotiated away as part of any peace deal. They will keep confronting the bullets, the gas, the hatred, until such a concept is realized: their humanity.
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