Joseph Dana reports:
Yesterday, members of Ta’ayush set out to have a picnic at an illegal outpost built on Palestinian land next to the settlement of Susya in the southern West Bank. We are always thinking of new and different ways to expose the insanity of the outpost expansion project. A picnic seemed like a beautiful form of protest to show the IDF's double standard in the West Bank – they protect Israeli settlers taking Palestinian land, while arresting others with more peaceful pursuits.
Susya is divided into three places; Palestinian Susya, Jewish settlement Susya and archaeological site Susya. Often, the first construction of an illegal outpost is a synagogue which the IDF is less willing to destroy. About one year ago settlers from Susya built a synagogue on the privately owned land of a local Palestinian. The area is known as Flag Hill (Givat HaDegal). Within weeks, the settlers had laid a foundation for one house and sure enough today a house now stands on Flag Hill. The IDF actively protects the house despite there being no full time inhabitants.
We encountered problems before we even arrived at the outpost. A minibus of Ta’ayush activists was stopped at the main checkpoint separating Jerusalem and the southern West Bank. Soldiers asked for our ID cards and without a stated reason held us at the checkpoint for over an hour. Presumably, they were requesting an order from a high commander that would bar us entry to the West Bank, efficiently denying us freedom of movement because we were engaged in left wing actions. This order never came. The commander at the checkpoint wrote down our names and ID numbers while informing us that we were not allowed to enter the south West Bank and if we were found to be in a “military area” we would be detained for 48 hours. This, of course, was a lie as he had no authority to issue such a statement and it was not put in writing. He was trying to frighten us which he failed to achieve. We entered through another checkpoint and eventually made our way to the picnic.
Ta’ayush has been monitoring the expansion of Flag Hill and yesterday decided to have a peaceful picnic in protest of the Army’s active participation in maintaining this outpost. We were a group of Jewish Israelis invited by the Palestinian land owner to have a picnic on his land. We thought, by all accounts, we had every right to be there. As we walked up the hill to the outpost, five or six IDF soldiers came to greet us. Without an order from a commander, they could do nothing so we continued and set up our picnic complete with hummus, watermelon and homemade pita from the land owner. A commander arrived within minutes and pronounced the area a closed military zone ordering us to leave within five minutes or face arrest. We continued to enjoy the picnic as the Army began arresting people, going after Ezra Nawi first.
The IDF arrested three people and removed the rest of us, over 20 people, from the hilltop. We returned to the land owner’s home and waited for word from those arrested. They were driven to a checkpoint about 15 minutes away from Susya and simply dropped off. One of those arrested told me that he was saying to the soldiers, “you are showing me that you broke the law and not me. If I did something wrong arrest me! Take me to a judge. But you are unwilling because I did nothing wrong and you did”
Related posts:
- Israeli army ups the violence against activists in the West Bank
- ZOA leads Passover picnic in West Bank to honor settler movement
- Gathering Storm on West Bank: Italian Judge Struck, Yeshiva Settlers Fire Rocket at Palestinian Village
- West Bank protesters imagine a binational future (with only Arab media watching)
- Settlers, farmers, solders, internationals–Max Blumenthal reports from ‘Greater Israel’
{ 15 comments }
Very easy for the IDF to solve this problem that it won't occur again: to confiscate all phones, cameras etc in the range they decide and then all these idiots can go back to north TelAviv and will not have any reason to come back since they are mainly attentions seekers.
Of they could just do what they usually do and just kill them. Would you propose killing the children first Zubeida? We know how the IDF love their target practice.
After the killing, the IDF could play their second favorite game: slandering the victims.
Such heroes! Are we really supposed to take these goofballs and lame publicity stunt seriously, when their probable motive is just to keep what they already have in "Israel proper"? Who are they fooling? They probably understand that all of Israel is vulnerable eventually, if the expansion and war continue. Each one who was arrested knew that the probability of facing real violence or the type of punishment that a Palestinian would face is unlikely. The fact that these people are held up as an example of anthing other than camp is revealing.
the little map the idf showed the protesters was revealing. a big circle surrounding the illegal settlement/outpost took up 4 times the land of that which thry were 'protecting'. blatant rip off. thanks for posting.
israel is vulnerable if the expansion of illegal settlements into palestinian land is continued? your logic is astounding.
And you can't see beyond your own nose.
Adage: A fence a good neighbor makes. My father always believed this. He always erected the fence on his own land. This is so basic, Israel's extensive defiance of it says a lot at the most basic level of common sense. What sane nation wills so, knowing it will further dispute rather than prevent it?
Very easy for pro-Israel people to stop your anti-Israel fascist fanaticism, ignore your posts under all your various shill accounts.
Blatant ultrazionist astroturfer. Go spread your anti-Israel hate somewhere else.
Your dad was quoting the Robert Frost poem, "Good Fences Make Good Neighbors."
Obliterate Israel. Then repopulate it with actual human beings.
And if Israel were obliterated where and who would find "actual human beings". Would they be found in Europe whose demons are manifesting again or in America whose main academic anti-zionism is Jewish intellectuals who will be the first taken out when the time comes or maybe we should finally take a vote in the 'civilized world' for the blacks in Africa who are continuously slaughtered without notice because they simply offer no monetary need to the west and make them "actual human beings" and populate Israel with them thus doing away with all the discussions of racial purity etc of the Jews. All problems solved then, we just have to 're-exterminate' the Jews and then the factor which has ruined humanity will be finished with.
I do not understand your reply .
Israelis are not Jews. They have absolutely nothing to do with Jews. They are filth from the toilet. There will never be peace so long as their nazi state exists. That's beyond obvious at this point no matter how many time Ariel Shron or Barack Obama mouthes platitudes about a Palestinian state.
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