It is almost the one-year anniversary of the killing of Bassem Abu Rahmeh, and this is the latest news in Haaretz: "IDF won't investigate death of Bil'in activist from tear gas grenade." Here's a photo of Abu Rahmeh, taken by his cousin Hamde.
When I stayed in Bil'in in February, Abu Rahmeh became such a familiar presence to me that it seems only right to call him "Bassem." I was struck by how the village feels his absence in everyday life, how his friends and family members watch and re-watch the gruesome footage of his shooting on cell phones and computers at the popular committee office, reliving his death over and over again. In the video, you see an unarmed man raising his hands in the air, imploring the soldiers to hold their fire--an Israeli activist has been hurt, Bassem says. And then an IDF soldier shoots him in the chest at close range with a high-velocity tear gas canister.
Six weeks ago, on the 5th anniversary of Bil'in's peaceful demonstrations against the wall, Israeli military spokeswoman Avital Leibovich told the BBC that Bassem died during a "violent riot." "Those rocks they're throwing can kill people," Leibovich said, adding, "they go to the fence and tear it down, then we have no choice but to show up and defend the fence."
The kind of tear gas canister that killed Bassem is heavy, shaped like a bullet and the size of a can of beans. Haitham Al-Khatib--a talented video journalist who doesn't sleep at night, so as to film the army raids in which the demonstration organizers are arrested--has a collection of them sitting on his desk at the popular committee office in Bil'in. One day, Haitham showed me the Hebrew writing on the back of the canister. "The Special," he translated ruefully.
At the end of my stay in Bil'in, I hesitantly mentioned to him that I'm Jewish. But Haitham didn't conflate "American Jew" with "Israeli soldier," and again he welcomed me to Bil'in, saying I had joined a long line of Jews who come to the village. Then, he wondered aloud about Israeli Jews--how a people who have suffered so much throughout history have gone on to bring great suffering upon another people.
Earlier this week, I remembered what Haitham said. I had trekked to my friend's family's house in Rhode Island for Passover. The morning after the seder, sitting at the table cluttered with all the dirty wine glasses, I got to talking about Israel with my friend's brother's girlfriend. Before long, I was stammering and furious, as she argued that Americans who struggle against the occupation are mostly self-righteous and possibly anti-Semitic for singling out Israel. She thinks all the settlements should be disbanded, but Americans should be focusing on racism here "where we can actually change things." To only focus "on some foreign country," she said, is to be hypocritical and maintain your own white privilege at home. And that's true! But, at the same time, especially as an American Jew, to not confront the Occupation is to be similarly complicit in maintaining the status quo.
Then I told her what Haitham said. Imagine: in Bil'in, they feel for the pain of their oppressor--in this case, a people who are supposed to see their fate as irrevocably tied to the fate of all oppressed people. For we have been slaves in Egypt and therefore are well-equipped to recognize the unfreedom of others and speak out against it (to paraphrase Grace Paley). "Who said that?" she asked, seeming to find it a difficult stretch of the imagination.
Today, if you walk through the tiny village of Bil'in, you'll see posters of Bassem everywhere. They show a handsome young man, head back and laughing, running along a barbed wire-strewn gravel road. He is flying a kite inside the wall--for such is the architecture of occupation that even prepositions must be used differently.
And so every Friday at midday, the people of Bil'in, along with Israeli and international supporters, march down the winding road that leads to the wall. "Chayalim, abaitah," they chant again and again, banging the barrier gate as the tear gas rains down. "Soldiers, go home." And every Friday, the sun sets and the soldiers remain, the lights from the settlements of Mod'in Ilit and Matityahu glowing behind them in the night.
Phil has a radio interview up at antiwar.com.
White Supremacy in the Holy Land
I really like how Phil is shifting the journalistic vocabulary with this interview.
Phil was superb in that interview and I say that with utmost honesty even though Phil doesn’t like me for the language I used a few weeks back on this website (I get passionate sometimes, especially when I see posters who trivialize others’ pain and suffering with callous and heartless indifference).
Anyway, I wish the interviewer stayed out of the “story”. Scott Horton clearly knows what he’s talking about, he’s great. But it just felt wrong that a radio host who’s supposed to be neutral is making the interviewee’s points for him. It would have been much better had the interviewer merely asked Phil questions and let Phil make the argument instead of taking over and kind of re-affirming Phil’s points over and over. Question and answer format, I think, works better. Just my two shillings.
Yeah, Phil does try to make people see the light. It’s not a jewish light however, except that it uses the Holocaust (patent pending) to bring more light. There’s some irony here, no? Or is irony merely a literary invention? We all know that most Americans don’t think much about literary classics. They prefer fake blue people as in Avatar.
i know that poster well because i found one on my walk back from the protest as we were re-entering bil’in. it was a bit scuffed up off to the side of the beaten path w/some pockmarks from gravel and a bit of dirt and appeared to have flown off on it’s own adventure. the striking posters were everywhere in town along w/a beautiful adorned monument for Bassam in the center of the little village.
in my brief stop in cairo prior to entering israel i gave my few mementos of gaza including a gift from hamas when we visited parliament and an amazing letter from the children at one of the schools along with some palestine flag pins, for safe holding i gave them to a fellow traveler who was flying back to the states thinking they would hold us up at the crossing in eilat. despite my repeated calls she has never sent them back to me. it was all for not because tighe forgot to dispose of the original letter from hamas to obama and you can imagine how that went over like a lead brick and we were at the border til way past midnight, hrs and hrs of interrogation. whatever..
anyway back to my poster…i knew it might land me in some back room at ben gurion airport but folded it up in my suitcase anyway and thought of Bassam as magically protecting me as i passed thru checkpoint after checkpoint miraculously never once having my bag opened unlike all the other people in my group.
just last week i bought a real frame for my deserving large poster of Bassam, no longer is it just tacked to my wall. i painted a large piece of cardboard black for the background and it looks positively regal on my wall. it is a magnificent piece of art, bright fire engine red w/the silhouette of barbed wire in yellow for the background. Bassam’s body large arms widespread and he is wearing a black and white stripped shirt with the wind catching part of it. a diagonal red banner in bold yellow font reads GOODBYE BASSAM and directly underneath a parallel white banner w/back font (slightly smaller) read YOU WERE A FRIEND TO US ALL. in the bottom right hand corner is a paragraph that reads:
Bassam Ibrahin
Abu Rahmah (alPheel)
was murdered by an
Israeli soldier on a
demonstration in Bil’in,
Friday, 17/04/2009
while protesting the
theft of his lands
i have it prominently displayed on my wall next to a beautiful rare photo of martin.
Bassem Abu Rahmeh
1980 – 2009
Rest in Peace.
What do you expect from war criminals? They have no respect to the notion of life.
Rest In peace beautiful angel! you are a hero and honour for Palestinians and their struggle for freedom.
RE: The girl taking the hasbara line (which one of the four, Mooser?), why single out Israel?
She seems ignorant of the “for we were slaves in Egypt” line,
and equally ignorant (and more unforgiveably so as it is not ancient history referenced) of the US severely disproportionate endless and stringless aid to Israel,
which if you add on it our aid to Egypt, which is really simply more aid to Israel as it buys the despotic Egyptian regime’s sucking on Israel’s nether regions, is even more
a testament of ignorant righteousness. Goebbels would be very proud of this girl’s ignorance, especially in free speeech USA. Mmmm, is she a shicksa?
Hey, kudos to Bernays too; after all, he was Goebbels’s mentor–nothing like selling deathly cigs to Americans by long-legged smoking shiksa marchers.