What does that mean? As an Ashkenazi (Jew from European decent) Israeli who was born in Australia to refugee parents, I have the luxury of living in Israel whenever I choose, with full rights, like other Jewish citizens. I have the freedom to move, access to hospitals, universities and water. What a luxury. So how can I call this place home and fascist at the same time?
Last Friday, I went to a Palestinian village called Bil’in. It is near Ramallah about two hours drive south of Haifa, my town, along road six, a highway built alongside the hidden Apartheid Wall that surrounds the Palestinian towns of Qalqilya and Tul Karm. Two cities, that are completely surrounded by the Apartheid Wall. Of course there are no signs acknowledging their existence, after all they are not in Israel, they are Palestinian towns. Difficult to comprehend when you first arrive to this place.
Last Friday was a special day because it marked five years of the struggle against the Apartheid Wall that was built on Palestinian lands near the village of Bil’in. It was also marked five years of popular demonstrations, suppressed by force. And nearly two and a half years since the High Court of Justice ordered a change to the route of the Apartheid Wall near this village. Demonstrators came from all over Israel and Palestine to show support for the village’s struggles for freedom. Freedom that I, as an Israeli and Australian, have always taken for granted.
The first time I went to Bil’in was many years ago. I have been going to the Palestinian Occupied Territories to document and bear witness to human rights abuses. I was raised to respect human right and freedom especially since my own Jewish ancestors suffered as a result of anti Semitism and the holocaust. I went to this demonstration because of those values of respect for human rights. What I witnessed was an assault on freedom and humanity by the Israeli army.
There were over a thousand people of all ages, mothers, fathers, children, grandparents marching to express, not only their solidarity with freedom, but also in solidarity for the right to live in dignity, to farm one’s own land and to live one’s own life without oppression.
Some of the Palestinian men managed to move the wire fence and put Palestinian flags on the other side, at this stage I did not see the Israeli army and thought it was strange. But then the Israeli army came. They sprayed stink liquid that made people sick, used sound grenades, and shot dozens of tear gas. There was nowhere to hide. As we, the elderly and the young ran to escape, the tear gas landed behind and beside us. I stopped and looked up to see it raining tear gas ahead of us. They shot numerous tear gas canisters at the front of the demonstration, at the side and then ahead of us so that we would be trapped by the thick white smoke. There was no point in running. No space was safe from the possibility of being hit by tear gas. The air was thick with gas, people couldn’t breathe. An elderly woman collapsed, people helped carry her out. Many people fell, they couldn’t breathe and they couldn’t move. I felt that there was nothing I could do to escape, I couldn’t breathe, my skin was on fire and my lungs were struggling for air like everyone else. I have not forgotten my history or why I am here, it is ironic that the Israeli army throw so much gas at civilians demonstrating for human rights and it is ironic that as a Jew I am gassed by a Jewish army.
I managed to get a distance away to turn around only to see the Israeli army continuing to shoot dozens of tear gas everywhere, and in disbelief I witnessed the Israeli army shooting at the ambulance which was surrounded by thick gas. I have no words to describe the injustice I witnessed. I can escape. I can go home, where I have running water to take a shower and wash off the day’s poison and trauma.
How many Palestinians need to suffer before we all take a stand to stop the violence? Israeli human rights organisation along with the Israeli peace movement and Palestinians are all calling for you to help by supporting peace and democracy in a country that’s spiralling out of control.
In this country democracy only belongs to the privileged like me, and not to my Palestinian sisters and brothers.
Alex Nissen
Women in Black
Coalition of Women for Peace
Israel Australia
Film of demonstration and march Friday the 19th February 2010
Bi’lin Habibty
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River to Sea
Uprooted Palestinian
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