Finkelstein and Me
By Khalid Amayreh • May 26th, 2008 at 10:06 • Category: Action Alert, Analysis, Israel, Khalid Amayreh, Newswire, Our Authors, Palestine, Zionism
Seeking to punish critics for communicating the truth about Israel to the world, Israel has barred an American scholar from entering the country and a Palestinian journalist from leaving the occupied territories for a brief trip to Germany.
Israel’s chief domestic intelligence agency, the Shin Bet, as it is known by its Hebrew acronym, has detained and deported Professor Norman Finkelstein, a prominent American Jewish historian and intellectual.
Finkelstein is a well-known critic of the apartheid Israeli state, especially its 41-year-old Nazi-like occupation of East Jerusalem, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip.
He is also the author of a famous book entitled “The Holocaust Industry,” in which he accused Israel and allied Zionist circles of using the memory of Holocaust victims for political ends.
Finkelstein arrived at the Ben Gurion Airport Friday, 23 May, for a visit to friends in the city of Hebron, where nearly 200,000 Palestinian citizens are effectively held hostage to the whims and moods of a few hundred fanatical Jewish settlers who believe that non-Jews in Israel/Palestine ought to be treated as water carriers and wood hewers, or expelled and/or exterminated.
However, upon his arrival at the airport, the 55-year-old professor was unceremoniously whisked away to a nearby Shin Bet office where he was interrogated for several hours on his views.
Shortly before he was put on a plane back to Amsterdam, his point of departure, the Jewish historian was told that he wouldn’t be able to visit Israel for ten years.
Finkelstein is the son of survivors of the Warsaw Ghetto and concentration camps. He wrote in his book, “I do care about the memory of my family’s persecution. The current campaign of the Holocaust industry to extort money from Europe in the name of the needy Holocaust victims has shrunk the moral stature of their martyrdom to that of a Montecarlo casino.”
Predictably the powerful Zionist establishment, both in Israel and North America, couldn’t tolerate his daring and meticulously documented criticisms. In 2007, he was forced to leave DePaul University following a virulent vilification campaign from powerful Zionist organizations, including the contribution of Professor Alan Dershowitz, the stalwart supporter of apartheid in Israel.
And now my story: A few weeks ago, I received an invitation from the German Institute for External Relations to attend a conference on how journalists ought to reconcile patriotism with journalistic professionalism in wartime. I went to the German representative office in Ramallah where I was interviewed on my political orientation and whether I had any association with organizations the German government considers “terrorist.”
I have always been and continue to be an independent-minded journalist. I never belonged to or was a member of any political organization or party. True, like everyone else, I do hold certain views with regard to the Israeli occupation of my country and oppression of my people. But so what? After all, no honest person under the sun would or should expect us to love our tormentors. Do Jews love their tormentors?
I have made laborious efforts and knocked on many doors to obtain a permit that would enable me to travel abroad for the two-day conference. Interestingly, I have not been allowed to travel abroad for 13 years, apart from a brief trip Mecca and Medina with my late mother for the Haj pilgrimage in 1997.
Last week, I went to the local District Coordination Office (DCO) in Dura, my town, hoping that they would be able to help. The office forwarded my personal details to the Shin Bet office in Hebron. However, the next day, I was told rather tersely that I was “barred from traveling for security reasons.” No further details were given.
In the process, I discovered the painful truth that the Palestinian Authority DCO officials were no more than insignificant middlemen between the Israeli occupation authorities and Palestinian citizens. They had absolutely no authority or influence, which generally epitomizes the overall status of the entire PA vis-à-vis Israel.
Last week, I was advised to go to the Israeli army Civil Administration Headquarters in Hebron in an effort to obtain a security clearance or at least explain my case to officials there.
There I saw dozens of Palestinian permit-seekers stuffed like farm animals in a metal pen, waiting to be allowed admittance. I was told that some people there had been waiting their turn for ten hours. Some of the people urgently needed a travel permit for medical purposes such as undergoing an urgent surgical operation at an East Jerusalem hospital.
I calculated that even if I had to experience the humiliation of languishing for 10 or 15 hours in that pen-like metal corridor, constantly monitored by trigger-happy soldiers in nearby military watchtowers, there was no guarantee that I would be allowed to get in and meet a security official to whom I would be able to explain my case.
In fact, it was abundantly clear that the soldiers enjoyed the indescribable humiliation and persecution Palestinian permit-seekers were going through on a daily basis at the notorious facility.
I really thought that the “Civil Administration Office” was a stark misnomer and that a truly appropriate name for the hateful facility would be “the Central Humiliation Station”, since there was absolutely nothing civilized about it.
A few days ago, I called Hussein Sheikh, head of the Civilian Affairs Coordination Office in the West Bank, and explained my problem to him.
I informed him that I was never arrested or detained by the Israelis and that there was no real justification for barring me from traveling. He concurred and asked me to fax him my details.
However, after waiting several days, it was clear that the Israeli occupation authorities paid no attention to his “mediation” on my behalf.
Some people here have suggested that I ask some erstwhile collaborators for help. However, I know well that broaching an Israeli dog to intercede with the Israelis for me was asking me for too much. After all, I spent half of my life exposing these malignant outgrowths that enabled Israel to achieve many of their murderous goals in Palestine.
Fettering journalists
Needless to say, Israel, which classifies Palestinians into either terrorists who ought to be annihilated or quisling-like collaborators, has no right to deny Palestinian journalists freedom of movement, internally or externally. Indeed, without this freedom, a journalist can hardly carry out his job properly.
As Palestinian journalists, we can’t be expected to compromise our honesty and professionalism for the sake of getting a travel permit from an occupying power that calls itself the freest and only democratic state in the Middle East.
We cannot adopt the Israeli narratives, use the Israeli jargon and parrot the Israeli lies. Our responsibility is first and foremost is to our conscience.
Israel and her supporters in North America and Europe claim ad nauseam that it is a democratic state.
But truly democratic states don’t impose town-arrests on journalists because their writings are deemed non-conformist.
Indeed, a state that behaves this way must be hopelessly insecure to the hilt, otherwise one is prompted to wonder what security risks would result from allowing a journalist to travel to Germany, a state that embraces Israel and Zionism heart and soul?
Is Israel worried that people like Khalid Amayreh and Norman Finkelstein would expose its criminality more than it has already been exposed? Is this the reason why the Israeli authorities are trying to fetter people’s freedom of movement?
Israel has no right to grossly violate people’s human and civil rights in the name of an amorphous and wantonly abused mantra called “security.”
Israel, which had left no stone unturned to get the government of the former Soviet Union to allow Nathan Sharansky and other so-called “Prisoners of Zion” to leave Russia, is very much committing the same crime by denying thousands, or probably tens of thousands, of Palestinians their inalienable right to travel abroad for religious, professional, business, health or recreational reasons.
We are not Israeli citizens, and Israel has no sovereignty over us. Hence, the draconian repression is incompatible with international law.
Hence, I call on my colleagues around the world to strongly protest this violation of my natural and human rights to travel, first as a human being and second as a journalist.
Finally, a few words to the Palestinian Authority. You are maintaining a huge bureaucracy of thousands of officials and operatives whose main job is supposed to be helping Palestinian citizens bypass or overcome the stringent restrictions of the occupation.
However, it is obvious these people have failed to carry out their tasks.
It is really sad and embarrassing that while Israel allows certain VIPs to travel freely (probably in the hope that the preferential treatment would hasten pernicious Israeli goals) the Israeli occupation regime continue to deny the vast bulk of the Palestinian people their basic rights, including the right to travel.
It is time that you insist that Israel refrain from interfering with Palestinian freedom of movement. If you can’t do it, then just pack up and leave.
This would much better for your own dignity and the dignity of the Palestinian people.
Khalid Amayreh is a journalist based in the Occupied Palestinian town of Dura.
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Not just Palestinians and Professors are suspect at Ben Gurion, middle aged American women leaving there can also interest the authorities.
Telling the Truth at Ben Gurion
[Tel Aviv, Israel , July 28, 2007 ] I left the American Colony Hotel in East Jerusalem: Occupied Territory at 8 AM and arrived at Ben Gurion Airport fifty minutes later.
I only hire Palestinian drivers whenever I travel in Israel Palestine, and for the first time in all my five journeys, my Palestinian driver did not have to leave his car and go into the interrogation building. Security asked me politely for my passport and to get out of the car and identify my luggage in the trunk. I did as I was told and then security returned my passport with a round blue sticker and the number 78 on the back cover. The sticker marks one as being with a Palestinian and triggers a more in-depth interrogation inside the terminal.
I told Samir, my driver, "I am not removing the sticker this time. I am livid to the point of over boil at all I have seen and heard these past two weeks and I will not shut up until I get it all out. I will be writing for the next week about what I have learned and I am going to tell airport security exactly where I have been and that I have been reporting it all on the web. I am flaming mad at my government and pathetic mainstream media who do not tell the truth about what is really going down in the Holy Land, which is all in pieces; Bantustans! Bush and Olmerts concept of a contiguous Palestinian state means connecting the unconnected enclaves with underground tunnels while the illegal settlers; colonists; squatters get to use the well paved apartheid roads and my tax dollars support this occupation and injustice! I am totally pissed off and whipped and worn out with misery and grief at all I have seen, heard and it has gone to my gut; my heart in other words, and I will not be silent; I cannot shut up."
Samir just shrugged.
The very first Ben Gurion employee, who questioned me, was the very same young trainee I had encountered in November 2006, but I didn't tell her that I remembered her. Eight months ago she was hesitant and apologetic in her questioning, but she had now mastered the routine, and there was no joking around. She was very concerned if anyone had given me anything that could be a bomb.
I told her nobody gave me anything except coffee, tea, water, soda, cookies, fruit, hummus and bobaganouh during my visits in Palestinian homes in Ramallah, Bethlehem, and in the Dasheish, Aida and Jenin refugee camps.
"How many times have you been to Israel?"
"This is my fifth trip."
"Do you have family here?"
"Not blood family, but friends who have become like family."
"What was the purpose for your trip?"
"I am an Internet reporter and I came to investigate what my government and the USA media doesn't talk about."
"So, have all your trips here been for business?"
"You could say that."
She then led me to the first x-ray machine, and after my bags passed through, she returned to me accompanied by another young woman and a young man in a suit.
He asked me; "How many times have you been to Israel?"
"This was my fifth trip and I spent all my time in occupied territory."
"Where have you been?"
" East Jerusalem, Bethlehem , Ramallah and Jenin. I am an Internet reporter and you can read all about my journey on my website," I replied as I handed him my card.
He looked at it carefully, smiled and replied, "Very nice, very interesting."
"Thanks. I hope you will read what I have to share."
"Oh, I will. May I keep your card?"
"Of course, it is yours and tell your friends to read me too."
"Thank you for your cooperation. There was a problem with your bags, they must go back through the x-ray machine."
"OK," I said and returned once again to where I had just been.
After the bags came back out, the young man in the suit informed me, "Your bags need to be further examined."
He led me to the next phase, a large rectangular space of tables with x-ray equipment in the middle and delivered me to station number 9, where three females were waiting for me. They asked me to open up all my bags and with plastic gloves on their hands; they swabbed and examined every surface and every article. My sunscreen lotion and Pink IPOD shuffle caused them some concern, but what really got them nervous was a stain on an old suitcase and they wanted to know, "How long had it been there?"
I had no clue as I borrowed the bag from my daughter and hadn't even noticed it until they brought it up. It took 35 minutes for them to go through all my stuff, and all my careful packing was for naught. They were pleasant enough, but nobody responded to me when I said, "All of this happens just because I have been to occupied Palestine? Oh well, every experience is writing material."
After they were satisfied I had no explosives in my luggage, one of them offered to help me repack, but I declined. As soon as I was zipped back up, one of them told me without making any eye contact, "Now I have to check you for metal."
"OK, sure, but I think you mean a strip search?"
[I had my first Dec. 2005, triggered because I had Palestinian NONVIOLENT literature in my suitcase.]
She didn't respond and led me to the examining room where my shoes, belt, and jewelry came off and she told me to sit down and she would be right back. After my shoes and belt passed the x-ray inspection, she returned to me and told me to extend my legs so she could pat them down. Then she instructed me to stand up and hold my arms out so she could wand me all over. The wand kept alarming in the vicinity of the metal buttons and rivets on my jeans. She said, "Have a seat; I must get my supervisor."
She returned with a young woman, who also never made eye contact with me and commanded, "You need to drop your pants around your knees."
I complied and after she wanded me all over she turned and left, and I called to her back, "Did I pass the inspection? Can I get dressed?"
She never responded but my first 'companion' said "Yes."
I was then led back to my luggage and another female; one who did make eye contact and smiled a lot. "Come with me," she said and I did.
She led me to the front of a line of about twenty travelers' at the Continental check in desk. Two American women had been first in line and behind them was an angry looking man who yelled at my 'companion' in Hebrew. She responded without a smile in Hebrew back to him, and then smiled when I said to the Americans, "I got to cut in front of you, because I am a security risk. I have been to occupied territory and have been writing what I witnessed and learned on the World Wide Web." I handed them my card and added, "I hope you will read all about it and tell your friends."
After receiving my boarding pass, my 'companion' led me on, and as soon as we were out of ear shot from the line of travelers she remarked, "Israelis can be so very rude."
I responded, "So, all this personal attention is just because I told the truth?"
She smiled again but made no comment until we passed through the employees security check and arrived at Passport control. "Sorry to have put you through all this, but it's just our job."
"I know how that is for I have been doing mine in occupied territory and this morning's experience has provided me with my next article."
PS-The morning I left Jerusalem, Israel was in 15th place out of 70+ countries that hit on WAWA daily. Upon mu return to the USA the next day they had jumped to 3rd place and remained in the top 6 for the following 6 weeks, and has remained in the top 10 ever since. BTW, USA Govt. and Military are consistently in top 20.
79 year-old Holocaust survivor Hedy Epstein was strip searched at Ben Gurion
as punishment for sympathizing with Palestinians.
http://www.jkcook.net/Articles2/0165.htm
Yes, they did that to a little old lady who escaped from the Nazis.
Any further comment seems superfluous.
More about Hedy Epstein at http://silviacattori.net/article358.html
We in the U.S. hear our politicians' mantra about Israel being the "Middle East's only democracy" repeatedly. But the treatment described here of an academic dissenter, a Palestinian journalist/patriot, the journalist who dared befriend Palestinians and the holocaust survivor show that Israel is democratic only for those who are Israelis who comply with its policies. For the rest, especially dissenters and Palestinians, it's silencing and humiliation.
It's interesting that the PA in the West Bank has no real power or authority over the needs and interests of its people, as this article demonstrates. It is indeed a pawn of Israel.
I am sending this article to "Democracy Now", one of the of the few fair media programs in the US, available on TV, radio and on the web: http://www.democracynow.org.
Strauss, Saramago, Vanunu, Finkelstein, Amayreh,….. who's next on the list?
Are the zionists plannin to burn some books like their 30's nazis colleagues in Germany?
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