Two weeks back, publisher Mort Zuckerman wrote a piece on Huffpo called "The Story You Aren't Hearing from Israel" that began with an event he described as one of the "everyday incidents
of the ordeal confronted by people in Israel:"
Did you hear about the two policemen who stopped to help a driver stuck
with a flat–and were shot to death in the head at point-blank range?
As a smart friend pointed out here in a post called "Fact-Checking Mort Zuckerman," the killings took place not in Israel, but near Jericho, the Occupied Territories. But for Zuckerman, the Occupied Territories are "Israel" and "Judea and Samaria."
Following that post, I had correspondence with Gregory Eow, who had lately returned from the Middle East. In fact, Eow was in the West Bank on the night of Zuckerman's incident. His story:
Regarding the story that Mort Zuckerman referenced, I was on that road
where the two Israeli policemen were killed about two hours after it
happened. Earlier that evening, my friend and I had crossed into Israel from Jordan at
the Jordan River Valley crossing. We got to the border around 7:00 pm
and didn't clear customs [near Beit She'an] until just after 9:00. Then we got in a taxi
for Jerusalem and our route cut right through the West Bank.
It was a
hell of an initiation. Several observations:
1)
Some Israeli border guards/police do not wear uniforms. They wear cargo
pants and sneakers while carrying serious machine guns slung over their
shoulders. I should be clear that I'm talking about guards who work
outside of the border-crossing facilities, not the workers inside of
the customs facilities. I haven't been able to find more information on
this phenomenon, but it was at every border area I was at, including
the Jordan River Border Crossing, the Border Crossing into the West
Bank south of Beit She'an, and later at the Yitzhak Rabin Crossing down
at Eilat. I think this is a violation of the Geneva Conventions which
say that soldiers must be in uniform. Then again, maybe these guys are
classified as police. Either way, it's rather unnerving to see guys in
casual clothing carrying machine guns and lurking around. I've never
seen anyone else comment on this fact, but it made an impression on me.
2)
Mr. Zuckerman is off-base if he's suggesting that the West Bank is just
like Israel proper. At 9:00 the night of those shootings I was in Beit
She'an [in Israel proper, north of the West Bank] and everything felt like California. At 10:45 or so I was in
Jerusalem, and it was full of food stalls and Internet cafes, situation
totally copacetic. But in between, in the West Bank, we're talking war
zone. At least it was that night.
I think the shooting took
place around 8 pm – no one is exactly certain when the crime happened –
and our taxi passed through on that road sometime between 9:15-10:15.
We may not have been on the road at the exact place of the shooting,
because we had to divert a few times and I was disoriented. (We were
diverted because of the shooting.) Anyway, there was a serious military
presence out on the roads looking for the shooters. I'm not talking
about the nice-looking IDF soldiers you see in the bus station in
Jerusalem. I'm talking about battle-ready soldiers in full gear –
balaclava masks, heavy armor – stopping traffic in the middle of
nowhere with spotlights and machine guns at the ready.
When our taxi
came across one of these impromptu checkpoints, he immediately stopped.
I mean, he stopped abruptly, as if he were unnerved. The soldiers put a
spotlight on us and yelled at the driver, all the while aiming their
machine guns at us. They were standing in a shooting position. This was
not a regular checkpoint, this was not soldiers on regular patrol. I'm
talking about soldiers outfitted for combat stalking empty roads in the
dark. The scariest thing about the situation, at least for me, was that
these soldiers looked and acted afraid. When a car approached from the
other direction, the soldiers quickly turned and aimed as if to fire
upon it. I felt terrible for these guys. These were scared young men,
in the dark, in the cold, surrounded by God only knows what. Needless
to say, I was terrified. One soldier, after seeing how afraid I was and
after looking at my U.S. Passport (through the window, while he was
pointing his machine gun directly on my body ready to shoot), opened
the door to the car and said in perfect English, machine gun still
nearly pointed on me, "Don't be afraid. Two policemen have been shot and we're looking for the shooters." God bless him, he was
well-trained and could tell I was upset.
By relaying the above
story I am in no way criticizing the soldiers or their behavior that
night. They were completely professional. I'm arguing that the fact
that the shooting affected the entire north West Bank so differently
from Jerusalem, even though Jerusalem was closer to the shooting,
suggests that the West Bank operates a lot differently from Israel
proper. I know, basic stuff. But it should also be basic to leave the
Green Line marking off the West Bank on maps for schoolchildren.
3)
Driving through the West Bank at night is illustrative, because you can
really make out the settlements. Israeli settlements look like prisons,
with well lit up perimeter walls (though in this case to keep people
out). The lights around Israeli settlements are bright white, perhaps
fluorescent lighting. Palestinian towns do not have well-defined
perimeters like the Israeli settlements and they give off an orange
hazy glow, unlike the bright white Israeli settlements. Anyway, driving
through at night you can see the Israeli settlements lit up everywhere,
some small, some huge, often in the hills. They dot the entire West
Bank, as you well know, but it's really distinctive to see in the dark.
Two
closing points. First, for weeks afterward I kept thinking about my
first night in the West Bank. I didn't think about the settlements or
having a machine gun in my face, though that is what I experienced
firsthand. Instead, I kept thinking about those two police officers who
were murdered. You can say that the settlements ought not be in the
West Bank and that Israeli policemen ought not have to guard them. In
fact, I now believe both of those things. But I kept thinking about
those police officers out on those roads that night. They pulled over
to help what they thought was a stranded motorist and found themselves
in the dark alone with their murderers. I'm having a hard time
accepting that. Second, for reasons not totally spelled out in this
e-mail, I really came to despise the Occupation during my travels
through the West Bank. I still love Israel, or at least I still love
the idea of Israel. But for now I'm going to have to let my disgust
with the Occupation supersede my affections. It's the only decent
option I can see.
