CPTnet
June 10, 1999
Hebron: "Conscience Medicine"
by Mark Frey

"They are demolishing our house, come now!" came the phone call from Abdel Jawad Jaber (May 31). The settlement of Harsina is building a new "neighborhood" almost on top of his house. The construction has already expropriated his land, and the family is afraid their house will be next, so we canceled the afternoon's agenda and took the CPT Rebuilders Against Bulldozers (RAB) delegation out to the Baa'qa valley east of Hebron to see what was happening.

The military was not destroying the house, soldiers actually were not even
present. Instead workers were sighting a line for a future settlement wall
that would come within meters of the Jaber house. Additionally, a worker on
top of the hill was drilling hundreds of holes for dynamite that would blast
apart the rock. The family told us the last explosion shook the house.

Abdel Jawad, his wife and the rest of the family were alternately yelling at
and talking with the workers: "Why are you here? Go from here!"

We also talked with the workers. The Israeli foreman told us in English,
"I've told the family a hundred times, I am just a worker, I got money for
this job and so I'm going to do this job. I'm not on this side or that
side.
Talk to the military commander."

We talked to the Palestinian workers who were operating the heavy machinery
transforming the formerly terraced hillside into a new flat residential
neighborhood. "We are just working to feed our families. We don't like
this, but what can we do. Talk to the boss, or to the government."

The Israeli foreman, tired of being yelled at by the Jaber family, called
Captain Shay, the local Israeli officer who alternately calms down agitated
Palestinians by listening to them and oversees house demolitions and land
confiscations. He is a composite "good cop, bad cop."

Shay told the family that this was not his responsibility, that the family
needs to appeal to the military court, the System. He said the officer who
oversees this kind of work was not available today, and that he would ask
him tomorrow to look into the situation. Abdel Jawad, a passionate man who
is perhaps overly trusting, seemed pacified and offered Shay coffee.
Captain Shay is very good at his job, and he respectfully declined. Abdel
Jawad's son Jawdi was not taken in: "Shay is bringing the medicine. He
brings the medicine that makes us sleep and be quiet."

Three players - the Israeli foreman, the Palestinian workers, The Israeli
officer - had the same explanation: "It's the System." And to some degree
this is true; oppressive systems do take on a "life of their own,"
constricting the choices of those working within them as it oppresses
others.
But Jawdi was right, there was medicine operating that day. Appealing to
"the System" skirts individual responsibility and functions as a medicine -
an opiate - that soothes guilt. It does so for all of us. At some point
people must stand up and say, "It is the System, but the System operates
because I am part
of it, and I will not participate." Admittedly this is a tough
choice, but nevertheless, a choice.