By Popular Struggle Coordination Committee
Friday protest against the wall in al-Ma’sara August 24, 2012. The late American activist Rachel Corrie is pictured in the sign. (Activestills)
Some 200 Palestinians and a handful of Israeli and international solidarity activists joined the protest in Kufr Qaddoum on Friday. The demonstration was dedicated to the commemoration of American peace activist, Rachel Corrie, who was run over by a bulldozer while attempting to prevent house demolitions in Rafah in 2003. The verdict in the civil lawsuit against the State of Israel in her case will be announced next week on August 28. The protest opened with speeches, following which the crowd started marching towards the main road of the village. Without any provocation on behalf of the protesters, the army started repressing the march with tear gas and rubber coated bullets. Fortunately, the demonstration ended without any arrests or severe injuries.
Protest against the Israeli separation wall, Al Ma’sara, West Bank, 24.08.2012 (Activestills)
The protest in Ni’lin started with a sermon and prayers on the land, following which the demonstrators marched to the gate in the wall. The army unit that was stationed on the other side of the wall used tear gas canisters against the demonstrators, but did not make any attempt to cross the wall and conduct arrests.
In Bil’in, demonstrators marched to the Abu Lamon grove and burned tires near the barbed wire protecting the wall. The soldiers reacted with a barrage of dozens of gas canisters, rubber coated bullets and the “skunk.”
In al-Ma’asara, dozens marched to protest the confiscation of lands and the construction of the wall. The crowd marched peacefully to the end of the village, where the army was awaiting. The marchers advanced peacefully and were stopped by the soldiers. The crowd stood their ground, facing the army. Slogans against the occupation were chanted, and many demonstrators started talking to the soldiers. The march ended peacefully. The planned route of the wall in this area would cut off 3500 dunams of Palestinian land and would also cut off the village’s acess to water and the primary routes between Hebron, Bethlehem, and Ramallah—three of the largest cities of the West Bank.
The IDF conducted house-to-house arrests during the weekly demonstration in Nabi Saleh. For more information, see this photo report.
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Aaron
These pictures are a perfect illustration of why the left in Israel is ignored, or worse, by nearly everyone. To whom are these protesters talking? The answer is clear from the pictures: they’re talking to themselves. The protesters are interested in self-expression (flags painted on faces) and self-righteousness. They hardly ever address or make any real attempt to communicate with mainstream Israelis. They live happily inside their beautiful little bubble.
Greg Pollock
How, Aaron, shall they talk to “mainstream Israelis”? They live on the other side of your walls.
Aaron
Television.
Vicky
Your comment suggests that you assume the protest is composed mostly of Israelis. It’s not. Kufr Quddom attracts relatively little Israeli participation compared to somewhere like Bilin, and the Palestinians there have faced many intimidation attempts by the army to stop them from protesting. One such attempt involved soldiers trying to arrest the two-year-old son of the protest organiser. This is the ‘beautiful little bubble’. I appreciate that’s not what you meant; you were talking about Israeli co-protestors, and this reveals another problematic aspect of your thinking – the idea that this struggle is somehow about these Israelis talking to mainstream Israelis. There’s someone missing in that picture. A few million people actually.
I agree that self-expression is an important part of these protests…but why shouldn’t it be? All demonstrations are illegal for Palestinians under martial law. It’s easy to sneer at someone’s political self-expression as ‘self-righteous’ when you yourself have guaranteed and protected rights to that same expression. They haven’t. This might be difficult for ‘mainstream Israelis’ to stomach, but it is not the responsibility of the protestors to make themselves palatable to the Israeli mainstream – if they did that, they would have to just shut up and go away, settle down to a quiet job cleaning public bathrooms in settlements, and never make any noise at all. It’s not such a very happy life in that bubble.
Aaron
You’re right, I didn’t read the article carefully, and I thought it was mostly Israeli protesters.
BOOZ
“but it is not the responsibility of the protestors to make themselves palatable to the Israeli mainstream ”
Keep on thinking this way, Vicky, but as long as the self-appointed Western proponents of the Palestinian cause ( I know there are a lot among them of the ISM tribe which according to me operates as a cult) will demonstrate that resolution of the conflict is a zero sum game, there will be no way out. THe Israeli mainstream will close their eyes and ears even harder.
If the goal pursued if coexistence bear in mind it takes 2 to make tango.
If the goal is Arab/Palestinan/Islamic supremacy, those people will find me in their way. Or are they just being used ?
BOOZ
Typo : if the goal pursued is (instead of if)
Jon
I remember when this happened in 2003 I was very ignorant to the actual nature of the conflict. When I read that an activist was killed because the IDF ran her over bulldozer I was disgusted. Since then, the actions of the IDF–that I have both read about and witnessed–and the mentalities of many Israelis only confirms for me that Israel is a violent and apartheid state. When I talk to most Israelis about this they have their justifications for why it is ok to keep their boot on whole populations neck. (“they will drive us into the sea if we dont” etc). It almost seems to many that these actions are necessary to have a Jewish State. A Jewish state was founded to keep Jews safe from hatred and violence, not so more hatred and violence could be put out into the world. It strange how the victims often become the perpetrators…
mplo
I personally think that, while Rachel’s death was needless…and preventable, there’s plenty of responsibility for her death to go around. Yes, the Israeli Govt. was definitely accountable because of their occupation of West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem, which must be ended…immediately, but so were the United States and the West, generally, for their complicity.
Yet, here’s something else I might add, which people may well disagree with me on; The International Solidarity Movement leadership, too, should’ve been held accountable for Rachel Corrie’s death. The wisdom of relatively inexperienced people going over into one of the most, if not the most dangerous, unstable parts of the world and putting people right smack in harm’s way to make a point is questionable at best, and, at worst, no less foolhardy than what the United States Govt. has done by sending our own men and women soldiers to fight useless, wrongheaded and illegal wars abroad, such as Iraq, Afghanistan, Viet Nam, to mention many other places.
Rorr
She was a spoiled brat who inserted herself in a conflict a chose sides. I remember a teenager named Rachel Levy who got blown up in a supermarket about that time. But I guess she doesn’t count to the 972 crowd.
Greg Pollock
Yes, Rorr, the bombings horribly happened. And what did these protestors this day do in al-Ma’asara? Talked to soldiers. Can you not see that their very presence says they are not like that? Not all of one color–no, no more than those on the other side of the Wall.
Jehudah Ben-Israel
In all fairness, we should view Mr. Corrie for what she was: A collaborator with the thugs of Hammas and Islamic Jihad.
Indeed, Ms. Corrie volunteered to serve as a human shield for those whose commitment was to slaughter as many Jewish civilians as possible – men, women, children, the elderly – only because they were Jewish, living peacefully in the country that has been the Jewish homeland for the past 4,000 years.
In this, Ms. Corrie not collaborated with an act of racism, anti-Jewish racism. She was also collaborating with those violating the very first of all human rights, i.e. the right to live and to defend one’s life.
Ms. Corrie’s supporters, we should all agree, need to do some soul searching, some introspection…
Ami Kaufman
Which, of course, gives one the right to run her over with a bulldozer. Your kind of justice, eh Jeuhudah?
Jehudah Ben-Israel
No, my kind of justice is first and foremost to obey the law and adhere to universal ethical standards.
Ms. Corrie violated both: She acted contrary to both international law as well as the 1995 bilateral agreement between Israel and the PLO on the basis of which relations between the two are governed. And, she practically spit at the very first of all human rights, i.e. the right to live and to defend one’s life, when it came to the lives of Jews: children, women, men and the elderly. She did so by collaborating with the thugs of organizations that are designated by the international community as well as by the country of which she was a citizen as terrorist organization.
Ami Kaufman
Oh. OK. Because, for a minute there, it seemed like you had no problem with her being run over by a bulldozer. In fact, I’m sure you have no problem whatsoever with her being bulldozed to death.
Ami Kaufman
By the way. Did the guy who bulldoze her to death spit on any ethical standards you hold dear, oh Dear racist troll Jehudah? Did he obey the law, as you so staunchly advocate, dear fascist troll?
Rorr
She came to what is essentially a war zone, choose a side, and became a casualty. Doesn’t make her a saint, doesn’t make her a martyr. Makes her an idiot. . It’s like Daniel Pearl going to Pakistan and somehow thinking that because he is an American reporter he has immunity anything bad happening.
Ami Kaufman
Ah, ok. So, like jehudah, you’re for executing idiots by bulldozing them to death. Nice.
Ami Kaufman
And I guess if Daniel pearl was murdered by disgusting terrorists, Rachel corrie was as well. Right? It’s your example, not mine, dude.
Rorr
So she was an idiot, we’re on the same page there.
Ami Kaufman
yeah, it takes one to know one, apparently. Go on and dodge questions, dear hasbara troll. Get a room with jehudah
Milton
So in your terms Jews making Aliyah are idiots too? They all come to a potential warzone and taking sides, I guess….
Allison
Rachel died defending the home of a pharmacist. She was a hero.
BOOZ
(I fail to understand why my previous message went out without a text . The new version, maybe?)
My response : of course not. But this does not preclude the possibility to question her commitments and/or to examine the responsibilities for her death. In this respect, mplo’s remarks are apprppriate.
JohnWV
This excerpt from Times of India, June 18, 2012, may contribute to understanding of Israel’s behavior.
RABBI OVADIA Rabbi Ovadia Yosef is the former Chief Rabbi of Israel and the spiritual leader of the Shas party Israels “kingmaker” party . In a sermon given on Saturday on laws concerning what non-Jews are permitted to do on Shabbat, Yosef said: “Goyim [non-Jews] were born only to serve us. Without that, they have no place in the world – only to serve the People of Israel. Why are gentiles needed? They will work, they will plow, they will reap. We will sit like an effendi and eat.” According to Yosef, death has “no dominion” over non-Jews in Israel. “With gentiles, it will be like any person – they need to die, but [God] will give them longevity. Why? Imagine that one’s donkey would die, they’d lose their money. This is his servant… That’s why he gets a long life, to work well for this Jew.”
MENACHEM BEGIN “Our race is the Master Race. We Jews are divine gods on this planet. We are as different from the inferior races as they are from insects. In fact, compared to our race, other races are beasts and animals, cattle at best. Other races are considered as human excrement. Our destiny is to rule over the inferior races. Our earthly kingdom will be ruled by our leader with a rod of iron. The masses will lick our feet and serve us as our slaves.”