My
first day at the office I learnt that 7 people had been killed by
soldiers at the Haram al Sharif. By the end of the following week I
had seen army snipers take over our town, 13 Palestinians within the
1948 borders of Israel were killed, and numerous others in the West
Bank and Gaza. If you think Israel respects the one million
Palestinians with Israeli ID as equals in a “democratic” state,
think again.
So
now, over a year and a half later, I am still here, and every week I
see more of the brutal effects of the Israeli occupation. As well as
working with a community organization for the rights of 1948
Palestinians, I now also write for an English language Cairo based
magazine. I came to my computer this evening after spending the day
talking to families in the Jenin camp. It is only 20 km away from me
here in Nazareth, but it takes about 2 hours after we have walked
across fields to avoid being turned back at checkpoints.
I
visited Jenin for two days last weekend. Although I didn’t see
him, 10 year old Asad Qraini was alive then. His family thought that
they were lucky as their house hadn’t been destroyed. The Qrainis
were not part of the UNWRA estimated 4000 homeless. I didn’t meet
them last weekend but drank coffee with them today because this week
they have one of the latest agonizing stories from the camp. On
Monday, as his father was praying, Asad climbed into a place where
the Jenin municipality and foreign volunteers had piled the
unexploded ammunition. The camp is littered with unexploded shells
and booby traps that were deliberately placed by the Israeli army.
There
was supposed to be a man standing guard to prevent people getting
close. Unfortunately he wasn’t there to see Asad climb in. His
father turned round to see his son’s shattered body fly into the
air. The hospital couldn’t save his limbs and by Wednesday he was
dead.
I
ask myself why this tragic accident happened. Why did my country and
others not come to the immediate aid of the victims of this
disaster? Why was there not a huge team of international bomb
disposal experts? Why were the refugees still in the same clothes
weeks later? But these are not the real questions. Why did the UK,
along with all the other Western governments, allow the killings in
Jenin camp to happen? The answer is simple, because it was an
Israeli military assault, not a disaster.
Despite
the international awareness of the crimes that Israel is
perpetrating against the Palestinian people, outright governmental
criticism of Israel is still taboo. No government in Europe is
prepared to stand against the U.S., particularly the British
government. U.S. interests in Israel are not ultimately religious
but strategic. It is essential that the American government keeps a
client military state in the Middle East in order to maintain the
balance of power in the region and, ultimately, U.S. hegemony. And
sadly the UK and “U.S. vice-president” Tony Blair will be the
last to rock the boat there.
However,
among the British people themselves I believe that there is an
increasing consciousness of the brutality that Israel is inflicting
on the Palestinians. I have had many people who previously had
little knowledge or interest in the region e-mailing me questions
and expressing disgust over what happened in Jenin. Another friend
reports that the “Boycott Israel” campaign stickers are dotted
all over London. Over 40,000 people attended a rally in London,
previously unheard of in the apathetic UK.
I
don’t blame my parents for not telling me about Palestine. Nobody
told them and they were subject to the pro-Zionist propaganda that
dictates a large amount of the British media. I think that it was
their encouragement of an inquiring mind and their deeply held
religious beliefs in equality for all humanity that made me open my
eyes to the situation here. Since I have seen so much in Palestine,
both my parents have taken the time to question their assumptions
about the Middle East just as I have done. My mother has started to
attend Palestinian human rights demonstrations in our hometown of
Cambridge.
 |
|
Burned
possessions |
But
if I ever have children the Holocaust won’t be the only massacre
they are told about. They will always know what I saw in Jenin and
most importantly what always happens in conflict; the innocent are
killed. Just look at the innocent killed in my own government’s
recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Some
people have said to me that I should leave here and go back home
because this has nothing to do with me. But on the contrary I
believe that it has everything to do with me. My country has
economic and military dealings with Israel, and my country is a
supporter of U.S. foreign policy, which means I have everything to
do with what is going on here. Looking further back, my country had
a big hand in allowing the establishment of a Zionist state in
British Mandate Palestine to begin with. So if by any small chance
you are reading this, please don’t tell me again that this has
nothing to do with me. Nobody of any race or religion can escape the
fact that we live in a global society. Those on the side of the
system that is reaping the benefits have a total responsibility to
engage in the struggle for global social justice.
And
lastly I want to make it clear that it is no hardship for me to live
in the Palestinian community. Quite the opposite. Arab society has
shown me an overwhelming acceptance and hospitality to the stranger,
and a respect between Muslim and Christian that I have never
experienced back in the my own “developed” society. And this I
shall always keep with me wherever I go.
For
another eyewitness account of Jenin, see also
http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/1798/sw179817.htm
-----------------------------------------
Isabelle
Humphries is Development and Programs Director at the Ahali Center
for Community Development, Nazareth. She has an MA in Middle East
Politics and is a freelance writer for the Cairo Times. You can
email her at
