 Letters from Palestine On my recent trip to Palestine I visited a village in the north of the West Bank, Deir Ghassan. Deir Ghassan is picturesque beyond imagination—rolling hills, ancient olive groves, and Palestinians living on the land as they have for hundreds of years. Tayseer, a local, had to choke back his tears and anger as he showed me around. The wall that Israel was building in the West Bank would soon annex Deir Ghassan and his family and relatives would be cut-off from the world. We approached the main entrance to the village and this is where I witnessed modern Israeli apartheid in action. At the entrance to the village was a gate with a lock and an Israeli guard tower next to it. Deir Ghassan has a gate at the entrance to the village. At night, or at whim, the Israeli Defense Force locks the gate and the entire population of Deir Ghassan is imprisoned. No one gets in and no one gets out. Deir Ghassan is now a gated community. There are hundreds of these walled-off and gated communities in Palestine. This grotesque destruction of a people, a land, and a history is what Israel has been pursuing for over 56 years as part of the Zionist dream of a land for Jews only. The wall is a monstrosity. It is much larger and imposing than the Berlin Wall or the walls used by white South Africans to isolate and imprison Black Africans. The Israeli wall will be 650 km long and is designed to surgically slice into vast expanses of Palestinian land and effectively annex about 50% of the West Bank. In many places it is 25 feet tall with strategically placed guard towers containing snipers, and a 150-foot security zone on either side. The Israelis refer to this as a “security fence”. The wall zigzags voraciously throughout the West Bank and cuts off Palestinian villages and farmers from their land, and in some cases, slices families in half. Farmers have to take permission to tend to their crops and are frequently denied this basic human right. In Qalqilya, for example, the wall encircles the entire city and is locked up at night by Israeli Defense Forces so that Palestinians become prisoners on their own land and in their own homes. This creates Bantustans; discontiguous and separated land collectives that keep Palestinians from farming, traveling, and receiving medical care. On closer inspection it is obvious that what is being annexed is the most fertile land in Palestine; it is also where the water aquifers are located. These natural resources are under complete Israeli military control and indigenous Palestinians are cut-off from accessing them. This is the new improved Israeli version of Apartheid. The specter of justice and international law is, however, looming over the dark cloud of the Zionist project and its apartheid aspirations. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has issued a ruling against Israel’s construction of the apartheid wall on occupied Palestinian land. The ICJ ruling unequivocally states that the wall violates international law and should be taken down immediately. The ICJ also ruled that Palestinians affected by the wall should be given compensation and it re-affirmed the illegality of the Jewish-only settlements on the West Bank. The United Nations and most other countries in the free world have also condemned the Israeli wall. For Palestinians the wall is a pretext for the confiscation of their land and is a threat to international peace and security in the region. Even before the ICJ ruling Israel issued a statement about the potential outcome: “We will not acknowledge any decision by the ICJ about the security fence”. As with all international condemnation of Israeli violations of international law and United Nation resolutions, Israel continues to see itself as outside the law and above the world community of justice. The condemnations of the wall are yet another blow to the illusion of Israeli democracy and its attempt to join the world of free nations. As an occupying power Israel continues to defy international law and world opinion by its stated policies of land confiscation, extra-judicial assassinations, detention without representation, torture, home demolitions, and brutal closures of Palestinian towns, cities, and villages. Given Israel’s preference for disavowing international law, the response to the ICJ should not be a surprise to anyone. This is how a modern apartheid-state functions. What makes the Israeli version of apartheid so vile, however, are its messianic delusions of grandeur combined with the support from the American empire. The similarity to Apartheid South Africa is obvious, including the presence of the United States as the main benefactor and protector of these racist practices. What will it take to bring humanity and justice back to historic Palestine? The time has come to borrow from the successes of the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa. It is time to hold Israel accountable to the rule of law by implementing the same international pressures used against apartheid South Africa. The world of free nations and all people committed to justice should actively promote the divestment of all Israeli bonds and monetary instruments and pursue a boycott of all Israeli goods. This will send a strong message to the Israeli government: Bring down the wall and let true freedom and democracy reign for all people living in historic Palestine or face the consequences. © Copyright 2004 by AxisofLogic.com |