A civil society delegation of eleven South Africans visited Israel and the Occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem between 21 - 29 October 2014. The fact-finding mission was facilitated by Open Shuhada Street South Africa and the Heinrich Boell Foundation. Brad Brockman, the General Secretary of Equal Education, was among this group. This is his account of the experience. I have just returned from an 8 day trip to Tel Aviv, the Occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem as part of a delegation of South African activists and academics. Nothing could have prepared us for what we saw and learned. Palestinians in the Occupied Territories’ freedom of movement is severely restricted. Those on the West Bank need to apply for permits from the IDF to visit Jerusalem or Tel Aviv. Those in Gaza, living amidst the ruins of war and still under an illegal Israeli blockade, have almost no freedom of movement. Checkpoints, watch-towers, surveillance cameras are all over the West Bank, and so is the Apartheid Wall, which also cuts into Jerusalem, annexing Palestinian land and dislocating communities. In the Jordan Valley, the most fertile land in the West Bank, we saw large Israeli agricultural settlements next to impoverished Palestinian villages. The IDF prevents Palestinians from using agricultural and water-well technology from after 1967, and in large areas, prohibits Palestinians from any form of construction. We saw Palestinian land which had been confiscated by the IDF on the pretext of “security”, only to be sold to settlers later. On average, Jewish Israeli settlers in the Jordan Valley are allocated 6 times more water than Palestinians, who have to pay up to three times as much for their water. In East Jerusalem we visited a Palestinian family, half of whose house had been taken over by Jewish Israeli settlers; and saw young men stopped by soldiers at checkpoints, prevented from going on to pray at Al-Aqsa. In Silwan we met a Palestinian community in revolt, refusing to leave their homes and accept the military occupation of their community. Similar to other communities where there is organised resistance, the army targets the children of Silwan, raiding their homes at night, assaulting and torturing them in detention, and forcing them to make confessions and implicate others. In Hebron, we walked the Old City which has been turned into a virtual “Ghost Town”. Israeli settlements have been built right in the centre of the city, expelling more than 10 000 Palestinians from their homes and forcing more than 1 500 shops to close. We visited a family who refuse to leave their home, despite constant harassment and intimidation, and having been violently attacked by settlers and soldiers on numerous occasions. Villagers in Nabi Salih have been holding weekly non-violent protests for 5 years against the confiscation of their land and a water spring by an Israeli settlement, at great personal cost. We visited the Tamimi family, who have been at the forefront of these protests, and whose father, Bassem remains in an Israeli prison. Any form of resistance to the Occupation is criminalised and punished severely. There are currently over 6 200 Palestinian political prisoners. At Ofer Military Court, we saw how Palestinians are presumed guilty and sentenced to long prison terms without any due process. In many of the cases we saw, Palestinians met their lawyers and saw the evidence against them for the first time, in court. The proceedings were all in Hebrew, with simultaneous Arabic translation, and each case was over in a few minutes. It seemed that the only option open to the accused and their lawyers was to plead for a lower sentence. The court has a conviction rate of 99,7%. In Tel Aviv I met Israeli friends who I had last seen 5 years ago. Both had been conscientious objectors and active in joint protests with Palestinians against illegal settlement activity and the Apartheid Wall. They lamented the indifference to the Occupation and the further rightward shift of Israeli society over the past few years, and were both seriously considering emigrating. The Palestinian Authority appears powerless in the face of aggressive settlement activity by the Israeli government – there are now more than 544 000 settlers living on Palestinian land on the West Bank and in East Jerusalem. While we were there the Israeli government announced the building of a further 1 000 settler homes in East Jerusalem. The PA also appears to be unable to protect its people, anywhere and to lack broad support. Despite this, we met courageous Palestinian activists and ordinary people who resist the theft of their land and homes, and who fight for freedom, dignity and justice under the most repressive conditions. They deserve all of our support. The Occupation is illegal, and it must end. Israel must be isolated – politically, culturally and economically – and compelled through a comprehensive Boycotts, Disinvestment and Sanctions campaign to withdraw its settlements from the West Bank and East Jerusalem, uphold international law and respect the rights of Palestinians.
Posted on: Tue, 04 Nov 2014 10:00:00 +0000
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