    Why?

    Nick Pretzlik

    January 2003

    During my stay in Palestine the only people to shoot at me were Israeli
    soldiers. The only person to threaten me was an Israeli Jew. Strange -
    it is supposed to be the Palestinians who are the villains of the piece.

    Rain greeted my arrival at Ben Gurion airport; sheets of it and this
    continued without respite for two days. Then, as if at the push of a
    button, the clouds parted, the gloom lifted, and the sun appeared. It
    has stayed that way ever since. If only events on the ground could
    change so rapidly.

    Palestinians must be the most misrepresented people on earth. Ejected
    from the land of their ancestors, seven and a half million now reside in
    the Occupied Territories (the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem) and in
    Lebanon, Syria and Jordan. Many survive in squalid refugee camps, some
    of them are there since their country was partitioned in 1947, others
    since the 1967 war. One million remain in Israel itself, second-class
    citizens in a Jewish state. News from Palestine is 'managed', sifted and
    refined by the Israelis. The public at large, even the Israeli public,
    have been kept unaware of what has been going on, of the scale of the
    disaster and injustice vested on the Palestinian people. The truth is
    now emerging and, albeit at the twenty-third hour, public opinion is
    changing - not in Israel yet - but in the wider world. For many Israelis
    the old slogans still apply - "the Occupied Territories are a war zone",
    "Palestinians missed their chance at Camp David" (a classic example of
    Israeli positive spin on an inequitable deal) and "Palestinians are
    terrorists who hate Israel".

    Travelling around the West Bank and down into Gaza I have yet to meet a
    single foreign journalist apart from one Reuters photographer and a
    number of Middle Eastern camera teams covering cultural events. There
    are a few committed souls doing their free-lancing best, but getting
    their stories published in mass circulation newspapers or accepted by
    television outlets is almost impossible. If a semi-retired business man
    like me, fifty seven years old and not speaking Arabic, can find
    families to stay with in refugee camps, such as Dheishe to the south of
    Bethlehem and Khan Yuni in the Gaza Strip, why aren't 'pukka'
    journalists doing the same? Are they not interested in the lives of
    Dheishe's twelve thousand inhabitants? It is Palestine's third largest
    camp and dates back to 1948. Are they not concerned at the camp's 84%
    unemployed level, at the misery of lives lived without hope in barely
    humane conditions, about the regular IDF (Israeli Defence Force)
    incursions, random shootings and house demolitions?

    To see the sea at Gaza on a sunny winter's afternoon is a magical
    experience. The join between beach and sea is so sharp and so true it
    seems to have been cut with a knife. The green of the waves at the
    water's edge merging into deepest blue, the sweeping arc of a cloudless
    sky, the softness of the light all combine to provoke a surge of
    adrenalin and to make the heart beat faster at such a tantalising
    glimpse of another world.

    How can it be that the camps in Gaza no longer attract interest? At
    least one Palestinian was killed and several wounded every night that I
    was in Khan Yunis - shot from perimeter towers like ducks on a pond or
    killed in their beds by random shelling. From eleven at night until four
    in the morning shooting continued uninterrupted.

    Wouldn't the world be interested to hear about the latest Israeli
    watchtower design? A brilliantly simple concept, it is a world-beater.
    Take the largest sky crane available, attach a basket - effectively an
    armoured platform - by cable to a hook on the end of the crane's
    extendable arm and hoist the basket one hundred feet into the air. Make
    a couple of snipers comfortable, give them plenty of ammo and a plateful
    of sandwiches and, hey presto, you have mobility and efficiency and boy
    can you stir things up.

    "Stirring things up" is really the point. So much of IDF policy is
    designed to disrupt Palestinian's lives, in short to play mind games.
    When life is unpredictable and dangerous it wears people down and
    diminishes their resolve. Closures and curfews too can have that effect
    especially if they are 'managed'. Bethlehem, for example, has been under
    curfew for six out of the last twelve months and during that time the
    application of curfew has been purposefully chaotic - four days curfew,
    one day open, three days curfew, three hours open, five days curfew, two
    days open and so on; whether to open or close always determined at very
    short notice. How do schools cope with that? How do hospitals and their
    staff cope with that? How do Hospital patients deal with that? Well
    sometimes they die - needlessly - and sometimes mothers give birth by
    the side of the road in front of the Israeli checkpoint.

    If alongside these 'games' the infrastructure of a community is
    eradicated - underground cabling and pipes ripped up, municipal
    buildings, police offices, public records offices, theatres all are
    destroyed - people's resolve will be undermined. That resolve may be
    further weakened when children are involved - families in Palestine
    often have eight or ten offspring - especially if parents have to watch
    their kids being traumatised by daily violence.

    One in five Palestinian children now suffer from chronic or acute
    malnutrition, a statistic on a par with the Republic of Chad in Central
    Africa. In the Gaza Strip unemployment is at 80%. Elsewhere in the
    Occupied Territories things are not much better and yet Palestinians are
    not leaving. Their resolve remains strong, their traditions, their
    values, their humour and their gentleness remain intact. Is this not a
    story in itself? Why is it not being told?

    In December the month before I came here, seventy-five Palestinians were
    killed including fourteen children under eighteen. If my experience is
    anything to go by January looks like being no less. Why is that not
    being reported? Why are we informed exclusively about suicide bombings
    when individual Palestinians are no longer able to tolerate the daily
    abuse, the humiliations and the erosion of dignity, have witnessed
    relatives shot or beaten, have been ejected from their homes in the
    middle of the night and stood helplessly by while their houses were
    destroyed? What must it feel like to endure the absence of work - not
    just for five years, not even for ten years, but for a lifetime?

    Israel holds all the necessary levers to control economic life in the
    Occupied Territories. It is also a disproportionate consumer of water -
    water being an increasingly rare commodity. The average Israeli family
    uses six times the amount used by a Palestinian family. Water consumed
    by Palestinians is first extracted by Israel from Palestinian wells and
    aquifers, and then is sold back to Palestinians at prices they cannot
    afford. Water is also used as a weapon; the supply can be turned on and
    off at any time. Prices for services in the Occupied Territories - power
    and fuel for example - are higher than in Israel although per capita
    income is a fraction of the money earned by Israelis.

    Why are Palestinians being so brutally treated? Is it to make their
    lives so insufferable that they pack their bags and leave? Yes. Is it
    the inevitable result of the Zionist goal of an exclusively Jewish state
    (politically at least)? Yes. Does racism play a role in Israeli
    behaviour? Yes. Have the abused become abusers? Yes.

    Military might is able to maintain the status quo; of that there is no
    doubt. But, future generations of Jews will not thank their parents and
    grandparents for what they are doing. It is future generations who will
    have to shoulder the blame and bear the guilt. And so also will the
    offspring of people around the world who know what is happening and
    choose to remain silent.

    ___________________________________________

    "Whoops"

    Nick Pretzlik

    Palestine 21 January 2003

    Only once before have I eaten a breakfast as good as the breakfast in
    Abu Ahmed's coffee shop in Qalqilya and that was five years ago in
    Yemen.

    Abu Ahmed's is not a fancy place; quite the reverse. It is where men
    gather to smoke a sheesha (hubble bubble), play cards, backgammon and
    draughts. They sit and talk and sip coffee or sweet Arab tea infused
    with sage. It is out of bounds for women.

    Since the Intifada (struggle) began two years ago and Israel blocked
    movement in and out of the town, unemployment has risen to 70%. 'Goods'
    may be imported, but not people, and nothing and no one - without
    special permission - is allowed to leave. Men have ample time to smoke
    and to chat.

    Like the majority of people in Qalqilya, Abu Ahmed is effectively
    bankrupt. However, families pool their resources and somehow they
    manage. Although life is not how it used to be, people haven't forgotten
    how to live.

    My breakfast was prepared personally by Abu Ahmed. He made the foull
    (bean paste), and the humous with the freshly pressed olive oil. The
    green olives were this season's crop. The chopped cucumbers and tomatoes
    were also local. The falafels, spicy with peppers and onions and
    sprinkled with sesame came from next door, as did the warm Arab bread.
    The aromatic coffee tasted delicately of cardamom. With food like that -
    and providing the Israelis do not shoot them - is it any wonder that
    Palestinians live so long?

    What a town of contrasts this is. As I walked to the end of a side
    street to see the 'apartheid' wall - a vast concrete structure which
    will eventually encircle the town and separate it from Israeli
    settlements nearby - I was passed by the butane gas cylinder salesman's
    van blaring out 'knick, knack, paddy wack, give a dog a bone', as if for
    all the world life was normal and cheerful. Moments later, having
    rounded the corner, I was confronted by the wall, the watchtowers, gun
    emplacements and razor wire.

    Wanting to take some photographs, I removed my passport from my pocket,
    held it high and moved into the middle of the road. I walked forward
    slowly, half expecting a sound grenade to land at my feet or warning
    shots to be fired. There was also the 'whoops' factor to be considered.

    Whoops accidents are a regular occurrence in Palestine - "whoops I
    didn't see that house clipped by my tank", "whoops my finger slipped. I
    did not mean to shoot him". Happily on this occasion there were no
    whoops. I walked to within twenty metres of the wall before a voice from
    the watchtower called out, "Stop. Who are you? What are you doing?"

    "English", I shouted back. "UN visitor to the UNRWA hospital in town."
    Silence. I stood immobile.

    "What do you want?" shouted the voice.

    "Photographs" I cried.

    "OK English" came the reply.

    Relieved, I snapped away, then retraced my steps. If I was Palestinian,
    I would now be dead.

    What a place! Forty thousand Palestinians incarcerated. Their
    surrounding farmland confiscated, their water wells and aquifers
    annexed, and businesses and factories closed. In two years an average
    family income with two male earners has fallen from US $ 2000 monthly to
    $ 60. To cap it all the Israelis have built a sewage plant and a rubbish
    dump next to the wall - one hundred metres from the edge of town. With
    Tel Aviv just twelve kilometres away there is no shortage of either.

    Astonishingly Palestinian resolve has never been stronger. Traditionally
    for a Palestinian to sell his land or the family home is to dishonour
    himself and his family; to do so would make them social pariahs. Nobody
    is selling today. Nobody is even thinking of selling. Why should they?
    It is their land after all.

    American politicians of both Houses are in thrall to the Christian
    Zionists and to the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).
    As a result Palestinians receive more support in Israel's Knesset than
    they do in the US Senate or in the House of Representatives. President
    Franklin must be turning in his grave.

    Public opinion is crucial to the Palestinian issue. Our politicians
    listen to us voters. If we raise our voices Members of Parliament and US
    Senators will prick up their ears. The unreasonable influence of
    organisations like AIPAC must be reduced. It cannot be right that the
    Palestinians in the Occupied Territories suffer because of the vested
    interests of minority groups of the world's one superpower.

    BARBARIANS AT THE GATES

    Nick Pretzlik

    in East Jerusalem 25 May 2004

    Zionism is in intensive care - dependent on the oxygen of support from
    the Jewish Diaspora and drip fed funds by the United States. Given the
    human and financial toll, it is legitimate to query whether the apparent
    purpose of Zionism today - to satisfy the Jewish sense of belonging and
    the wackier elements of the Christian Right - is worth the price. Are
    the pain and suffering and the political blowback of doing the bidding
    of these two groups and a handful of settlers worth the decimation of
    the indigenous Palestinian population, as well as the loss of Jewish
    lives? Why do Israeli Jews put themselves through all this? Why do they
    ignore the obvious alternative - a dynamic, secular state incorporating
    Jews and Palestinians with equal rights for all? Why do they insist on
    clinging to the concept of Zionism - a concept, which should have been
    buried along with the other nineteenth century colonial adventures?

    Ten days ago I traveled south from Jenin to Jerusalem down the fertile
    funnel of the Jordan Valley - parched, rocky hills on my left,
    indistinct in the heat filled haze, and mountains to my right, dazzling
    bright in direct, early summer sunlight. I should have been inspired. I
    was not. Instead I was ashamed - ashamed that Britain with its Balfour
    Declaration of 1917 is the architect of Palestine's misfortune, ashamed
    that even now - when Palestinian suffering is apparent to the world -
    Britain does so little to help. It felt wrong that I - a Brit - could
    slip comfortably away from Jenin, at a time of my choosing, while the
    victims of Balfour remain incarcerated.

    The day before my departure, one man was killed and another wounded in a
    targeted killing. No warning roar from an approaching tank's engine, and
    no ominous clink of heavy metal tracks, just an Israeli assassin's
    bullet fired from an apparently innocuous Palestinian truck piled high
    with boxes of chickens. One more day in Jenin.

    We forget how sophisticated Palestinians are. The demonisation process
    has continued for so long that we no longer remember they possessed,
    until recently, the best educational system in the Middle East.
    Cultured, clever and skilled, these are the people the Israelis are
    attempting to return to the stone age.

    The Palestinian refuge is religion and the clerics are taking advantage.
    Israeli occupation and oppression encourages fundamentalism and Israel
    should be the first to remember how dangerous that is. After all, it was
    Israel, who funded Hamas in its early stages. The aim then was to divide
    and fragment Arafat's Fatah power base by introducing a new dynamic into
    the arena. Israel surely cannot wish to repeat that mistake.

    While Islamic ardor is being fanned by the actions of the state, the
    Jewish authorities have embarked on a process of rearranging their
    relationship with the Christian churches. In an article published in the
    Christian Science Monitor, Jane Lampman quotes an official at the Latin
    Patriarchate, who says "all indications point to the fact that the
    church is slowly being strangled". The comment is given weight by
    reports that the Israeli government has withheld visas for dozens of
    religious workers and is in the process of reviewing the charitable
    status of various groups. In spite of official protestations to the
    contrary, it seems likely that the action is coordinated and systematic
    and that the objective is to make life difficult for Christian
    institutions.

    Later on Jane Lampman provides another telling quote; this time from the
    Rev. David Jaeger, a representative of the Holy See. He says "In the
    Catholic world there is a growing view that Israel has deliberately
    framed a policy to hurt the church". Anecdotal evidence, however,
    indicates that evangelical churches are excluded from this policy.

    Why? What reasons would the Israeli government have for behaving in such
    a way?

    The answer is that the traditional churches are viewed by officialdom to
    be sympathetic to Palestinians, whereas the evangelical institutions are
    often fervently pro Israel and supportive of Zionist policies.

    The smothering of criticism from religious quarters, the racism
    increasingly engrained in Israeli society, and the fascism apparent in
    Likud government policies are indications of the way the future is being
    shaped. The Zionist dream of Greater Israel may be on life support, but
    it is not yet dead. The Iraq war is part of a process. It is an Israeli
    war and others are planned to follow. The time has come for the world to
    wake up - the Barbarians are already at the gates.

    --
    Pray not for Arab or Jew, for Palestinian or Israeli, but rather for
    ourselves, that we might not divide them in our prayers, but keep them
    both together in out hearts.