How Human Are You?

Last year, on one of the last days of a class on Collective Memory in the Palestinian/Israeli conflict, we watched a film in which the director takes a Palestinian family to see a photo album from their grandfather, that was confiscated during the 1967 war and was found at the Israel Defense Force archive. In order to take this trip, the director of the film needed to wind his way through Israeli bureaucracy in order to obtain the appropriate permits for the son of the family living in Abu Dis, behind the Israeli separation wall.

C/o holylandshots.com

Following the film, asked questions in order to clarify their confusion about this permit system.  I was surprised and shocked by these questions.  As students of Arabic and Middle Eastern studies, living in Israel/Palestine, only 1 kilometer from the separation wall, and after taking a class about the Palestinian Israel conflict for an entire semester, these students did not even know about one of the most basic institutions of the Israeli occupation that dominates the lives of all Palestinians.  This system of bureaucracy, creates an intricate web of distinction determining how human each person is, depending on where they live, for whom they work, and who their parents are?

Identity cards for Palestinians are classified into two categories: blue and green identity cards.  Blue ID cards are granted to Palestinians living in Jerusalem.  This ID cards allow the holder freedom of movement to wherever they please.  Blue ID holders can travel in and out of Jerusalem and the West Bank as they wish.  They can also travel through any checkpoint they please.

Green identity cards are granted to Palestinians living in the West Bank.  Holders of these ID cards cannot travel to Jerusalem freely.  They must obtain a special permit in order to cross through checkpoints into Jerusalem.  Normally, these permits are granted around holidays (for one's respective religion) or through one's work organization.  Even if a Green ID holder obtains a permit, they are not allowed to go through all checkpoints, as a Blue ID holder is allowed.  They may only enter Jerusalem through walking checkpoints, which force them to  make their way through a maze of fences, barbed wire, and long lines.

If one is fortunate enough, they may work for an organization in Jerusalem which allows them special privileges as a Green ID holder.  They still need a permit, but may enter to Jerusalem through whichever checkpoint they wish.

As a foreigner, I am allowed to cross any checkpoint I wish.  Sometimes through a walking checkpoint, my passport may not even be checked because of my foreign appearance.  Other times, I flash my passport and am waved across through a checkpoint.  When I travel to Jerusalem on the bus through the driving checkpoint with Blue ID holders, I am allowed to sit on the bus, while all Blue ID holders must get off the bus, wait outside in the scorching heat, or cold, rain, and wind in order for their ID's to be checked before being allowed back on the bus.  If you are young enough, or old enough, you may be allowed to stay on the bus with foreigners.

Traveling almost every day on this bus, I am often struck by the question propagated by this permit and ID process:


How human are you?


Are you a Jerusalemite, Blue ID holder who is free to move wherever? Are you a Green ID holder in the West Bank, who has a work permit or holiday permit, but only allowed to go through certain checkpoints? Are you a Green ID holder, with a work permit allowing you freedom of movement?  Are you a Green ID holder who cannot receive a permit, because you went to a demonstration as a teenager and were put on a black list to never receive a permit? Or are you a Palestinian whose status as a human has changed?

My friend experienced a change in humanity when he moved from working with an organization with an Israeli partner to a organization based in Palestine?  With this job change, he went from having a permit that allowed him movement through any checkpoint, to having no permit and not being able to enter Jerusalem at all.

Many Israelis and internationals think that the separation wall only affects those who have previously committed violent acts toward Israelis and thus are a threat to Israeli security.  In fact, this is not true.  The separation wall, has been built along with the institution of a delicate permit system.  This system affects all Palestinians and plays a sick game of determining who is human and who is not, and presents the question: how human are you?

© Devon Forster

Want to Travel to Palestine?

Sabeel, the Palestinian Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center, is hosting their 7th Young Adult Conference this summer from July 4 -July 15, 2012.  The cost is only $1200 + the cost of airfare.  I had the privilege to help organize one of the previous Sabeel Young Adult Conferences.  It is a great opportunity to visit holy sites, as well as learn about the political situation in Israel/Palestine from a uniquely Palestinian perspective. Also, for the amount of places that you get to see and stay, it is a great price!

Follow these links to the flyer and application.

Israel and Apartheid?

I am a little late in posting this to the blog, since one of the articles I am posting was written two weeks ago, and the other written five days ago.  My lack of internet at the moment is keeping me from responding speedily.

I, however, felt compelled to include two articles written about the issue of Apartheid in Israel.  Many organizations working to end the Israeli occupation have adopted the term Apartheid in describing the practices of the Israeli occupation against Palestinians.  Often I feel uncomfortable with the use of the term Apartheid in the context of Israel and Palestine, because the term Apartheid conjures up the specific situation of discrimination in South Africa.  While there are many racist and discriminatory policies that Israel implements, in many cases these actions are different than in South Africa and do not lend to a direct comparison.

Photo c/o www.sfpr.uwaterloo.ca

I, however, was offended by the article written and published in the New York Times by Richard Goldstone entitled Israel and the Apartheid Slander, who claimed: “In Israel, there is no apartheid. Nothing there comes close to the definition of apartheid under the 1998 Rome Statute: ‘Inhumane acts ... committed in the context of an institutionalized regime of systematic oppression and domination by one racial group over any other racial group or groups and committed with the intention of maintaining that regime.’”  He glosses over the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza stating: “But here too there is no intent to maintain ‘an institutionalized regime of systematic oppression and domination by one racial group.’”  He writes off the issues of the wall, home demolitions, discrimination of Israeli Arabs, and denies the existence of systematic oppression.

I am thankful for the following response, Judge Goldstone’s offensive apology for apartheid, by Udi Aloni, an Israeli writer and filmmaker, which points to the systematic oppression of the Israeli government. He states: “The main difference between the two is that in South Africa apartheid was an explicit tenet of the judicial system, while in Israel the entire judicial system conceals and cleanses the praxis of government-led apartheid.”  He continues to explain the ways in which Israel has a policy of systematic oppression.

I encourage you to read both articles to learn about the use of the word Apartheid in Israel.  On my part, I agree with Udi Aloni, although oppression is not an explicit tenet of the judicial system in Israel, Israel has systematized oppression in its policies towards Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza, and Israel.

© Devon Forster

Fall Means Olive Season

I’m still adjusting to living in a place where Fall doesn’t mean pumpkin spice lattes, ginger snap cookies, and apple pies. Instead, Fall in Palestine means figs, dates, the beginning of avocado season, and olives. 

For about a month every October and November, all over Jerusalem and the West Bank, you can seen farmers, and even small families hard at work collecting their olive harvest.  Sometimes even in the middle of the city in Jerusalem, you'll see a couple of men collecting olives, to take advantage of every tree available.  Many extended families use their olive harvest to supply them with olive oil until the next year.  Many farmers make their livelihood from their olive and olive oil production.

Even the olive harvest is one of the aspects touched by the occupation.  Whether its farmers who cannot get to their land because of the wall, military restrictions, or threat of settler violence, or because their olive trees have been demolished this year to make room for the continuing building of the separation wall, the olive harvest suffers more and more each year.  For this reason, it is even more important to help support Palestinian olive oil, olives, and other fair trade products. 

Although the world has been won over by Italian olive oil, Palestinian has a pure, smooth taste giving it a distinction all of its own.

How can I buy my own Palestinian olive oil? you might ask.  Click below to buy from the Lutheran World Federation or from Canaan Fair Trade.

The Lutheran World Federation Olive Oil

Canaan Fair Trade Olive Oils

 

"We Live and Exist Here"

The news is full of stories about Israel/Palestine lately.  The special focus this week has been Palestine's acceptance as a full member in UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, and the Israeli response in the wake of the decision to increase building and expansion of settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank.

While these stories fill up the news, what goes un-noticed is the further expanding of the separation wall.  What few outside of Israel/Palestine, and even many Israelis do not know, is that the separation wall, which started being built in 2002, is not yet finished in many areas.  Instead of being a stagnant and completed issue, the separation wall, continues to threaten many areas and is rapidly under construction.

A group of young Palestinians joined together to create a peaceful mass and demonstration against the confiscation of the area of the Cremisan monastery and winery by the building of the separation wall.  The Cremisan monastery is the last green area left for Palestinians in the Bethlehem area to enjoy picnics and walks.  It is also the only winery in the Palestinian territories.

Not only is Cremisan in danger, but the agricultural land surrounding the village of Al-Walaja and agricultural land in the area of Makhrur, which belongs to many families in Bethlehem and Beit Jala.  As the priest poignantly stated: "More and more injustices are committed, and the world seems to watch completely incapable of helping our oppressed Palestinian nation."

The Priests and Crowd at the Mass and Demonstration on the outskirts of Cremisan.

The area of land that will be confiscated by the Israeli separation wall.

The settlement of Gilo.  Living here, you would never know that just across the valley Palestinians face the threat of losing their land.

To those on the other side in Gilo, the organizers of the demonstration wrote a message: "We Live and Exist Here."

© Devon Forster