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Palestine
and Israel:
women protest the wall
Protests against
the Wall – Israel, November 2003
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From
a visitor's journal:
Coordinating
demonstrations among Israelis, Palestinians in the West Bank, Palestinians
living in Israel and internationals is not an easy task. All obvious
conflict tensions aside, finding a day when all three groups can
protest together, or at the same time, is just difficult. The Palestinians
do not work on Fridays, the Israelis on Saturdays, and the Christians
on Sundays, so there are preferences with every group according
to their work week and religious practices.
In Israel, it
was decided that the protests were to begin on Saturday, a day before
the international protests, so that as many Israelis as possible
could attend. Before I left for the protest meeting point, I ate
a full breakfast and drank lots of water as it would be disrespectful
to eat and drink anything during daylight hours in front of Muslims
fasting for Ramadan. |
Saturday, 8
November 2003: Protest against the Wall – East Jerusalem
More protesters showed
up than expected and it looked like we were about 1000 people strong.
The buses arrived to take us to Abu Dis in East Jerusalem, and once
we boarded, we were briefed on what protest actions would be taking
place and on safety tips in dealing with soldiers. Once we arrived
in Abu Dis, we quickly left the buses, grabbed onions to use over our
eyes in case the police used tear gas on us, and headed towards the
8 meter high slabs of concrete which were being stored along the road.
As we faced the huge
monoliths, spray cans were quickly passed out and words of peace and
calls for an end to the occupation and the Wall were sprayed enthusiastically
onto every reachable spot of concrete. Once we were finished, the giant
slabs of wall had become a colorful mosaic of Hebrew, Arabic, English,
French, Spanish, and Japanese words urging for reason, humanity, and
peace to prevail.
The demonstration
moved on to Sawahreh, where the Wall will cut through the town and separate
it from it's cemetery. Once the Wall is erected, the villagers will
no longer be able to bury their dead with their families. The end of
the protest was marked with the call to continue the struggle against
the Wall, to end its construction, and to compensate the Palestinians
for their losses. We were all relieved that the protest remained peaceful
and that the military did not decide to barracade the towns, making
them a "closed military zone", which had prevented demonstrations
in the past.
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Sunday, Nov.
9th International Day of Protest against the Wall – The
West Bank
Early on Sunday
morning I hitched a ride with one of the staff of the International
Women's Peace Service, to the West Bank town of Haris, about 20
kilometers west of the city of Nablus. We had to transfer taxis
three times and made it to the house in the record time of an hour
and a half. While hiking through the hills to avoid a checkpoint,
a soldier ran up to us and between gasps of breath informed us that
we had to turn around and enter Haris through the checkpoint. The
IWPSers' unwavering response of, "Yeah, but I walked this way
yesterday!" seemed to confuse him and he mumbled something
about the checkpoint, wished us a good day and let us continue on
our way. |
After arriving
at the IWPS house and greeting the five other international volunteers,
we quickly gathered our protest signs and drove to the town of Mas-ha
to wait at the "Baladia" or town hall, for the Palestinian
women protesters. This was a significant day for the women of Haris
and Mas-ha. They were going to have their first ever women-organized
demonstration. The goal of the demonstration was to walk to a house
that is sandwiched between an Israeli settlement and the Wall. The
house belongs to a Palestinian woman and because the Wall is right in
front of her doorstep, the Israeli government fully expected her to
leave and abandon her house. But Palestinian women are strong and resolute
and her family stayed put. To make her life more difficult, the Israeli
government buillt a concrete portion of the wall right in front of her
house (the Wall in this area consists mainly of electrified, wire fences)
which blocks her view of Mas-ha and her community.
As soon as the Palestinian
women arrived, it was clear who the voice of their movement was. A
strong, energetic woman named Selwa* stood in the center of the group
and started coordinating the route our demonstration would take to the
checkpoint. Suddenly, several Palestinian men interrupted our small
gathering and started dictating how we were going to demonstrate. They
took our signs away and then a long series of negotiations between the
Palestinian women and men were undertaken to figure out how best to
proceed with the demonstration.
With the men leading
the way, our group, now twenty strong, walked to Mas-ha to pick up more
women protesters. There were about 40 of us as we began to walk hand
in hand alongside the trenches and razor-wire to the checkpoint. I
felt exhilarated when a Palestinian woman unexpectantly took my hand
in hers. We walked together and she spoke to me in broken English about
her life in the West Bank.
About ten meters
before the checkpoint, the men called on us to stop and, surprisingly,
gave us our posters back. Without missing a beat, Selwa called for the
men to move back and let the women lead the protest. After all it was
a women's demonstration! Amazingly, the men agreed and with immense
pride and relief we walked forward to the checkpoint where four Israeli
soldiers had been waiting for us.
Dealing with the
soldiers went fairly quickly as they were only going to prohibit us
from passing the checkpoint into the Israeli settlement, which was not
our intent. At the house we were greeted by 5-6 national and international
journalists, who filmed and took pictures as we held hands and the Palestinians
sang songs of protest. In the background, the concrete Wall towered
over us, but we felt relieved and happy that we had even managed the
protest. Israeli security and soldiers drove by every five minutes
to assure us of their presence, but we turned to face each other because
our presence and solidarity was what was important. One could say that
it was only a small protest that made little difference, but it was
significant for Selwa and the women of Haris and Mas-ha as it was their
first public attempt at voicing their opposition, fears, and anger against
an increasingly brutal life under the Occupation. And as they considered
this protest a success, I am sure it will not be the last.
(addition: On December
26th, 2003, Palestinians, Israelis, and internationals demonstrated
at the passageway through the Wall leading into Mas-ha. As the Israeli
activists attempted to tear down parts of the metal fence, Israeli soldiers
shot first in the air and then opened fire on the activists injuring
one young man in the knee.)
*Name has been changed
Our correspondent
reported from the region.
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