It was Friday morning and people were still sleeping when my friend Imad who lives in Tel Rumida called to tell me that the military container checkpoint had burnt to the ground. His wife was filming videos and taking photos. This was the first time this checkpoint had been set on fire since Israel started to gradually block Shuhada street after the Ibrahimi mosque massacre 20 years ago. Imad said that Israel police asked to interrogate his wife to try and collect information. As a collective punishment against the families, following the fire, the IOF refused to allow families living in Shuhada street, Tel Rumida and other surrounding districts to use the checkpoint for entry or exit. For two days in a row, Qurtoba school children were unable to attend school or go to a kindergarten which was established by local families and activists from the city. Collective punishment is not new. They punished us when they closed Shuhada street after the massacre. Many families were forced to move due to the restricted freedom of movement in Shuhada street and the Tel Rumida neighbourhood.
Israel is creating an apartheid museum in Hebron
Palestinians today still live with punishments and the removal of rights relating to freedom of movement, freedom of education, freedom of work and all of these simple and basic rights that are protected in international law. Israel still kills and strangles Palestinian life every day. Gradually many Palestinians begin to think of leaving their homes because life has become unbearable. Israeli documentaries describe this as a silent transfer policy and even call Hebron the ghost town. It can be said Israel has succeeded in creating an apartheid museum in Hebron. Apartheid is still connected in the International mind with South Africa but now many of those who were activists against apartheid in South Africa say they see other forms and the hardest in Hebron.
Israeli policies make daily violence acceptable.
Israeli policies fragment, divide and continue to break the social relationships between families living in the same neighbourhood. They shatter the lives of many families who are forced to leave their homes. People ask when this injustice will end and allow normal free movement to our homes, schools and work. When will the Israeli soldiers allow our kids to study as many kids around the world study without fear and without having to pass through check-points. Why are Israeli policies that make for daily violence and abuse acceptable in the human consciousness of the international Community?
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Great article, Badia Dwaik– thank you!
Badia
Oh you mean the kinds of free flow of goods and people that existed prior to the 1st intifada when Israelis and Palestinians in the territories lived mostly at peace in cooperation. You mean the situation that existed when Palestinians were grateful that Israel had rescued them from the Jordanian and Egyptians governments. You men the situation that existed in the territories Palestinians wanted to enjoy the economic fruits of Israeli democracy and didn’t want to try and take political control of those territories away from Israel.
Yeah I wonder what it would take for those situations to return? Hmmm. Oh well in the meanwhile let’s strap on a bomb and blow up a pizzeria or something to try and get it back.
1986
April 25: a 16-year-old Jew was stabbed.
June 6: a Jewish resident was stabbed and injured.
September 14: an Palestinian woman stabbed an Israeli soldier in the tomb.
October 16: a Jewish resident was stabbed.
and there was a crackdown.
3 fatal stabbings and 9 fatal shootings between 1st and 2nd intifada
17 shootings and 1 bombing during the 2nd intifada
What did you think was going to happen when you behave like that? The Israelis have made it clear they aren’t going to tolerate political violence in Hebron and as long as you use the free flow of goods and people to facilitate political violence there won’t be a free flow of good and people.
You can either resist occupation or you can accept and work with the government to have normal and a normal economy. You can’t have both. The Israelis have decided they are keeping the Jewish quarter of Hebron. They are going to do whatever it takes to keep the Jewish quarter. The moment that stops being a point of contention all the other bad stuff stops. And BTW I do fully realize the settlers in Hebron hate you all and instigate. That becomes much easier to control when you no longer justify their hatred by attacking them.
Work with the Israeli government not against it like you used to during the 1970s and all this can change.
“You can either resist occupation or you can accept and work with the government to have normal and a normal economy. You can’t have both. The Israelis have decided they are keeping the Jewish quarter of Hebron. They are going to do whatever it takes to keep the Jewish quarter.”
JeffB– you are really as demented as Netanyahu and all the rightwingers. There will be resistance, as long as their is Occupation and Apartheid. No human will lie down and take it.
If your dream was to come true, it will have to be ONE STATE with freedom, equal rights, and everything that a democracy entails.
Deal with it.
@Annie Robbins
Yes I did hear. Israel has been doing .7-1.1% quarter by quarter GDP growth recently. For this quarter they are down to .4%. So the Gaza war knocked about .5% off GDP, a bit over $1b. As for the -18% that was 1Q2014 nothing to do with Gaza, induced by a drop in durable goods, especially cars on the order of 24-30%.
Conversely the Gazans were starting with a per capita GDP of $876 / yr, well below what Gaza had in the mid 1990s. In 2008 the last round with Israel induced a -6.7% GDP growth, a severe recession. The damage this time is unquestionably going to be an outright depression.
I’m not sure how a few problems proves Ianna’s point about Israel’s backs up against the wall.
@Annie Robbins
Again you are confusing nation and state.
I’ve never suggested that. I’ve said the opposite time and time again.
It would require both. Changing laws can be done in a matter of minutes. Changing cultures is much more difficult.