Henning Mankell – Stopped by Apartheid
By Mary Rizzo • Jun 25th, 2009 at 21:37 • Category: Israel, Mary's Choice, Newswire, Palestine, Resistance, Zionism
Israel in May of 2009.
Just over a week ago, I visited Israel and Palestine. I was a part of a delegation of authors consisting of representatives from different continents. We were supposed to participate in a Palestinian literary conference. The inauguration was supposed to take place at the Palestinian National Theatre in Jerusalem. Just as we had gathered, heavily armed Israeli military and police officers arrived and said that they were going to stop us. Asked why, the answer read:
“You’re a security risk.”
Of course, it’s sheer nonsense to claim that we constituted a security threat to Israel at that moment. But at the same time they were right. We do constitute a threat when we come to Israel and say what we think of the Israeli oppression of the Palestinian population. It’s not more odd than when I, and thousands of others, once constituted a threat to the apartheid system in South Africa. Words are dangerous!
This is also what I said when the organizers had succeeded in relocating the whole inauguration at the French Culture Centre, which had agreed to house us:
“What we are now experiencing is that the despicable apartheid system, which once treated Africans and coloured people as second class citizens in their own land, is repeating itself. However, we shan’t forget that this apartheid system no longer exists. It was overthrown by human force to the dust heap of history, in the early 1990s. There is a straight line between Soweto, Sharpeville and what recently happened in Gaza.”
During the three days that followed, we visited Hebron, Bethlehem, Jenin and Ramallah. One day, we walked through the mountains with Palestinian author Raja Shehadeh, who showed us how Israeli settlements are spreading out, confiscating Palestinian land, destroying roads, building new ones for settlers only. Harassment presented itself immediately at the checkpoints. Needless to say, my wife Eva and I had a much easier time getting through. But people in the delegation, who held Syrian passports or were of Palestinian origin, were more vulnerable. Take your bag out of the bus, put it back in again, take it out again…
But there are degrees, also in hell. Hebron was worst. In the middle of a town of 40,000 Palestinians live 400 Jewish settlers who have confiscated a part of downtown Hebron. They are brutal. They don’t hesitate to attack their Palestinian neighbours at any time. Why not pee on their heads from highly-located windows? We saw a documentation that, among other things, showed settler women and their children kicking and hitting Palestinian women – without the military intervening. This is why there are people in Hebron who, in the name of solidarity, volunteer to walk Palestinian children to and home from school. These 400 settlers are protected 24-7 by 1,500 Israeli soldiers. Each and every settler is constantly guarded by 4-5 people. On top of that, the settlers are allowed to carry weapons. When we visited one of the worst crossings in Hebron, there was an extremely aggressive settler who filmed us. If he saw any sign of something Palestinian – a bracelet, a pin – he ran off to report to the soldiers.
Of course, nothing of what we experienced could ever be compared to the Palestinians’ situation. We met them in taxicabs and in the street, at evening-readings, at universities and theatres. We were able to listen to what they’re being subjected to.
Is it strange that some of them, when they see no other way out of it, decide, in desperation, to become suicide-bombers? Hardly. Strange, perhaps, is that more of them do not opt for it.
The wall that is now dividing the country will prevent future attacks, on short-term. But the wall is all too clearly an indication of the desperation of the Israeli military power. In the end, it will suffer the same fate as the wall that divided Berlin.
What I witnessed during this trip was all too clear: in its current shape, the State of Israel has no future. Moreover, those who champion a two-state solution are wrong.
In 1948, the year of my birth, the State of Israel proclaimed its independence on occupied land. There are no good reasons at all for saying that this was a legitimate move under international law. Israel simply occupied Palestinian land. And its land holdings are constantly growing – through the war, in 1967, and today through the constantly growing settlements. Every now and then, some settlement is dismantled for appearance’s sake. But soon enough another one pops up somewhere else. A two-state solution doesn’t mean that the historical occupation comes to an end.
Israel will end up the same way as apartheid South Africa. The only question is if the Israelis can be made to listen to reason and to voluntarily agree to the dismantlement of the apartheid state, or if it needs to come about by coercion.
Nor can anyone tell when it will happen. The final rebellion will, of course, be initiated from inside. But sudden political changes in Syria or Egypt will be contributory.
As important, certainly, is that the USA soon won’t afford to pay for this gruesome military power, which denies stone-throwing kids a normal life in freedom.
When these changes are a fact, it is up to the individual Israeli whether he or she is prepared to relinquish his/hers privileges, in order to live in a Palestinian state. I didn’t encounter any anti-Semitism during the trip, only a completely normal hatred of the occupiers. It’s vital to keep the two apart.
We had intended to end the last night the same way we had started in Jerusalem. However, the theatre had been closed down by the military again. It had to happen elsewhere.
The State of Israel has only defeat to await, like all occupying powers.
The Israelis crush life. But they crush no dreams. The fall of this hideous apartheid system is the only conceivable, because it’s a necessity.
The question, then, is not if but when it happens, and, accordingly, in what way.
TRANSLATED BY KRISTOFFER LARSSON, member of www.tlaxcala.es
http://www.tlaxcala.es/pp.asp?reference=7943&lg=en
Aftonbladet June 2, 2009
http://www.aftonbladet.se/kultur/article5283239.ab
Mary Rizzo is an art restorer, translator and writer living in Italy. Editor and co-founder of Palestine Think Tank, co-founder of Tlaxcala translations collective. Her personal blog is Peacepalestine.
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I arrived at Ben Gurion Airport at 9 PM on June 14, 2009, for my seventh departure since June of 2004.
I cleared SECURITY at 11:25; fifteen minutes before the doors were locked, but, I was still smiling as I approached the first SECURITY agent in the queue who smiled back at me and then asked, "What was your purpose in Israel?"
"To get to Gaza, but I only made it as far as the Erez Checkpoint. For eight days I was embedded with CODE PINK activists who had been invited by the UN to see the facts on the ground and meet the people who try to have a life there. A CODE PINK contingent got through from Egypt and built three playgrounds in Gaza. Did you know that over half of the 1.5 million open air prisoners in Gaza, are kids younger than sixteen years old? Did you know that?"
He shook his head negative and asked, "Do you have your Press Card?"
I laughed, and replied, "I am not card carrying press! I am an Internet Journalist, a member of the New Fourth Estate. My career began in 2005, after my first of seven journeys to Israel and occupied Palestine. Everything I write is published first on my site, and I am a feature correspondent for Arabisto and The Palestine Telegraph, which by the way was founded and is based in Gaza. I work with them and am also published by The Peoples Voice, Oped News and other sites."
"Any American media?"
"All are USA, except for The Palestine Telegraph. By the way, today I was in occupied east Jerusalem meeting with Mordechai Vanunu-you know the ex-Orthodox Jew who turned Christian in 1986 and provided the photographic proof and told the truth about Israel's Weapons of Mass Destruction Program twenty-three years ago. Did you know that the democracy that you have in Israel actually sentenced him to three months in jail just for talking to non-Israeli citizens, who happened to be media back in 2004? Incredible but true, and Israel now does not know what to do with him, so they keep rescheduling his Supreme Court appeal. I am the reporter who has been following Vanunu's freedom of speech trial since it began January 25, 2005, which by the way was the same day Hamas was democratically elected. Did you know that?"
The SECURITY man backed away from me, but he kept his eyes on me as he made a phone call. I was still smiling, but my buzz was not chemically induced from the two vodka tonics I had sipped before I arrived at Ben Gurion that night. I could not suppress a giggle at the surreal sight of three twenty-something year olds wearing nearly identical suits and similar ties who were rapidly approaching me as they studied me intently, and when they arrived, the man in the middle asked me, "What is the problem?"
"I haven't any problems at all! In fact I am most happy to inform SECURITY that I am an internet reporter meaning one who does not take assignments from editors or paychecks from conglomerates. And by the way, reporters like me cannot be censored or secured into silence and we report from occupied territory."
They all appeared dazed and confused but remained silent as I was led to the front of the line at the luggage x-ray machine. I apologized to the other travelers for cutting in and explained it was only because I was a SECURITY risk for being a reporter from occupied Palestine. As I waited for my luggage to pass the inspection, I began writing the dialogue that had transpired between me and SECURITY ever since I had arrived at Ben Gurion Airport. Within a minute one of the suits reappeared and asked me what I was writing about.
"My experience's here."
"You cannot write about SECURITY!"
I laughed, sighed and replied, "Sure I can. I have and I will. There is no way any state or SECURITY machine can stop the free flow of information. Nor can SECURITY deny people of their conscience."
He walked away and I kept writing. My checked bag made the trip through x-ray three times before I remembered what I had stowed among my dirty laundry and reading material. As soon as I apologized to SECURITY for what might look like a b-o-m-b to them- but in reality was only a bottle of Russian vodka- I was then told where to take all my luggage and stand and wait my turn to have all the contents of my luggage examined, probed and swabbed. After that thorough inspection and repacking, I was led to the same office I have been before where one is "checked for metal."
Previously, I had been told to remove my shirt and drop my jeans, but this encounter I was allowed to remain fully clothed for my thorough pat down and wanding.
Being an American, I can never fully understand what every Palestinian must endure daily from Israeli SECURITY; but I have heard enough of their stories, seen enough of effects of The Wall and far too many eyes of children who only know Israelis through the barrel of a gun, to ever shut up in trying to educate and agitate the status quo; for experience is all about what you do with what happens to you.
the rest:
http://www.wearewideawake.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1317&Itemid=221
I support Eileen Flemming she is a great girl! I want to send my message to all to do something about Mordechai Vanunu still imprisoned in Israel for donkey's years!