The Great Wall of Denial
by
Gila Svirsky
Dissident Voice
March 4, 2003
A
few nights ago, I was awakened at 11 pm by the sound of a loudspeaker blaring
from a police car in the street near my home in Jerusalem. I thought I heard a
demand for someone to come out of the house and into the street. I wondered if
a terrorist was loose in the neighborhood, as had happened more than once in
various parts of Israel. I kept the light off, and ran to confirm that the
front door was locked. Then I turned on the radio to hear if anything
newsworthy was happening in my neighborhood. When I heard nothing, I crept back
into bed, and lay there waiting for the next thing to happen. After a while, I
thought of how many perfectly normal and law-abiding Palestinians are awakened
in the middle of the night by loudspeakers from army vehicles, lie in bed
waiting for events to unfold, and end up hearing the sounds of a neighbor being
arrested and taken away...or being taken away themselves. A few weeks ago, a
loudspeaker in the village of Beit Lahiya called residents out of their homes
in the middle of the night, and 200 neighbors--including small children and two
women who had given birth 2 days earlier--were forced to huddle together for
hours in the cold winter night until the army let them return to their homes.
This is not uncommon in Palestinian neighborhoods, though the information
rarely reaches the newspapers of Israel. In my neighborhood, it turned out to
be the police searching for a missing child. In the Palestinian neighborhood,
it can be a search for someone on the 'wanted list'... or just plain
harassment.
The lives of Palestinians in
the occupied territories have been thoroughly disrupted since Sharon came to
power, far more than under any preceding Israeli prime minister. The mystery,
however, is not the reign of terror --this is no mystery under Sharon--but the
indifference of Israeli citizens to that behavior. How is it possible that
through two and a half years of increasingly cruel conduct of our army, the
Israeli public has had almost nothing to say about soldiers...
*urinating on school
computers and defecating on the rugs of homes they have garrisoned for use;
*"accidentally"
demolishing the homes of innocent people that happen to be near the homes
deliberately destroyed
* preventing the residents
of entire cities from leaving their houses for weeks on end (no exceptions--not
for chemo, dialysis, childbirth, buying food, attending school, or visiting
your sick mother);
*damaging 27 Palestinian
ambulances beyond repair and wounding 187 medical personnel [www.palestinercs.org] ;
*and assassinating people
without the niceties of trial and due process, not to mention reckless
shootings in which 126 innocent children aged 13 or younger (including 19
toddlers and infants aged 5 or younger!) have lost their lives [www.btselem.org].
Why, I am trying to
understand, are we Israelis so blind to this brutality? Where are the
expressions of revulsion by decent Israelis? Why don't the major newspapers
report these heart-wrenching stories (not just the liberal and much
smaller-circulation Ha'aretz)? Why didn't a single Jewish political party in
the recent election criticize the government for its policy of collective
punishment? Why are the brave young men and women who refuse to carry out these
crimes disparaged in the media, while even Peace Now and the Meretz party don't
come to their support? Why are only a handful of people willing to apply the
label 'war crime' to the deeds of the army--deeds that merit this designation under
any objective reading of the international instruments of law? The lack of
outrage and compassion in Israel is difficult to understand. Is it a reflection
of the fact that Israelis are uninformed? Or are they aware and indifferent?
I believe that Israelis do
know the truth. They know because some stories --the most poignant--do reach
the media. A month ago, they saw a scene on Israeli TV of a young boy on
crutches forced everyday to scale a muddy checkpoint wall to get to school.
They know because they do reserve duty in the territories--or their family and
friends do--and some even brag about the dirty tricks they saw or did. They
know because some watch CNN, the BBC, or other foreign media, even when they
dismiss these reports as anti-Israeli or anti-Semitic. But enough stories do
get through for Israelis to know what is happening, to understand the brutal
reality. So the question is, why is there indifference? Here are three reasons,
though I'm sure there are more:
First, the media gets some
of the blame. Although facts and figures are reported, the media fail to convey
the human suffering behind the iron fist policies. Journalist Gideon Levy
points out [Ha'aretz, 2 Feb 03] that when 15 Palestinians were killed in Gaza
in one blood-drenched day last week (February 19th), the Israeli newspapers
were wrapped up in the story of the Qassam shells that landed in Sderot,
wounding one. Journalist Amira Hass speaks of the 'routine of calamity'
[Ha'aretz, 26 Feb 03] in Palestine as disasters spiral, which I believe has
also routinized the reporting of them and our response. When 25 homes were
destroyed in Gaza last month, making 200 Palestinians homeless, not a single TV
or radio clip conveyed the story of these people with anything approaching
compassion.
Second, Palestinian violence
against Israeli civilians provides the cover for Israelis to focus on our own
pain and fear, and to frame the pain of the Palestinians as 'just desserts' or
an inevitable byproduct of our 'war on terrorism'. Furthermore, innocent
bystanders have been killed on our side, too, making it harder for Israelis to
feel compassion for those they regard as supportive of the attacks.
Nevertheless, the completely lopsided balance of power and suffering has not
penetrated the consciousness of the Israeli public as a whole. The violence on
both sides is reprehensible, but most Israelis behave as if only our people are
its victims, while the other side, all of them, are the perpetrators of the
crimes.
Third, much blame goes to
our political and rabbinical leaders who engage in fear mongering and
dehumanization of the other. Racism is rampant in Israel, from popular Rabbi
Ovadia Yosef who called all Arabs 'snakes', to President Katsav who told a
group of bar-mitzvah boys, "The Palestinians don't behave as if they come
from the same planet as we do." The National Union Party, a member of
Sharon's new government, openly advocates ethnic cleansing--the 'transfer', as
they call it, of all Arabs from Israel and the territories. Is it any wonder
that so few pay attention to the suffering of those who have been devalued and
dehumanized? Meanwhile, our military leaders repeat the mantra that "The
IDF is the most moral army in the world."
There may be many more reasons
for Israeli indifference. Eitan Felner, former Director of the B'Tselem human
rights organization, referred to Israel's behavior as typical of an adult who
has been abused as a child and consequently becomes an abusive adult, just as
Jews were abused in Europe and now take it out on others. Many Israelis believe
they hold exclusive rights to the category 'Suffering Victims', and are unable
to view themselves as having inflicted suffering and victimhood on others.
But the important question
is, how do we penetrate the numbness of Israelis, soldiers and civilians alike,
about the wrongness of our actions --wrong morally and stupid strategically. As
virtually everyone has recognized by now, the brutal policies only create more
bitterness and desire for revenge. How do we get the message across to Israelis
that the government is undermining our security in the territories with each
act of humiliation and cruelty? How do we convey to Israelis that we are
behaving in some ways like the persecutors of Jews have behaved from time
immemorial?
Israeli peace and human
rights activists have been wracking our brains over how to accomplish this. The
young men and women who refuse to serve in the army have done more than their
share to raise awareness about the army's cruel deeds, though they face court
martial and prison as a result. Led by the New Profile organization, many peace
activists will be holding a rally in April to express our pride in these young
people. Ta'ayush and Rabbis for Human Rights lead groups of Israelis into the
territories to see the appalling conditions. Machsom Watch takes visitors to
the checkpoints to observe the military vise-grip on Palestinians who try to
use the roads. Gush Shalom has led the drive to place the "war crime"
label on unlawful army behavior, to the wrath of the generals and the Attorney
General. The Coalition of Women for Peace placed an ad in the Arabic-language
newspapers, letting Palestinians know that some Israelis are aware of their
suffering, do care, and are trying to stop it. And a new campaign is shaping up
among a coalition of groups under the slogan, "Don't say you didn't
know..." in reference to the claims of ignorance by Germans during the
Nazi regime. And yet with all this effort, will we be able to break through the
Great Wall of Denial?
Something different works
for each person. What caught at my own heart was a scene captured on video by
B'Tselem, an Israeli human rights organization in the territories. It showed a
simple conversation between the B'Tselem fieldworker and a well-dressed
Palestinian man, standing forlornly beside his car parked at a checkpoint:
"Why aren't you driving
through?" asks the B'Tselem worker.
"I don't really
know," answers the man.
"What do you mean, you
don't know? Aren't you waiting to get through the checkpoint?"
"Yes, I'm trying to get
to Hebron. But the soldiers told me to wait here."
"How long have you been
waiting?"
"Since 7 o'clock this
morning."
"Since 7 o'clock? But
it's 5 pm! Why are they keeping you?"
"I really don't know. I
was just driving through and they told me to stop and get out of my car and
wait on the side. I really don't know. I'm just waiting for them to let me
through."
After a pause. "Did you
eat anything yet today?"
"No, I left home early
and planned to eat in Hebron..." His voice starts to break and he turns
away as he struggles to keep himself from crying. After a pause. "Did you
call your family? Do they know where you are?" "Yes, I called several
times, the last time around 3 o'clock, but now my battery is dead."
"Would you like to use
my cell phone?"
"No, no thank you, I
told them at 3 I'd be home in a couple hours. It's 5 now. I don't want to worry
them." He turns his head and tries to fight the tears.
There is random violence,
there are arrests in the middle of the night, and there are the countless ways
to make a person feel powerless, fearful, not knowing if he'll get home today
or still be standing by his car tomorrow, waiting for the young soldier to let
him through. Indifference is not felt by everyone. For those who do care, the
only answer is to stand witness to this reality. To share the information with
others. To speak truth to power. And, thereby, to break the cycle of
helplessness and despair, and create a better place for us all.
Gila Svirsky is an Israeli peace activist living in
Jerusalem. She is a founding member of the Coalition of Women for a Just
Peace, a grouping of eight Israeli and Palestinian women's peace
organisations.