CPTnet
March 14, 2003
HEBRON: The first and worst violence is the Occupation

by William Payne

"They've put a tank in front of the ladder lady's house," Sue Rhodes told
me. The "ladder lady" is a woman who uses her rickety wooden ladder to
provide an alternative route to school, via her back porch, for children in
the Old City. "I told the soldier that it is a basic human right for
children to be able to go to school, and he agreed that is true everywhere,
except here." Sue sounded saddened and exasperated.

"Forgive them, for they know not what they do." What if they do know?

This city is very tense. In recent months the Israeli military has been
stepping up their occupation of Palestine, and particularly of this city.
Our quarter of this city of nearly 200,000 people has been under continuous
curfew for almost four months. Soldiers patrol the streets, enter homes,
detain people, and sometimes beat them.

Israeli settlers beat farmers who dare try to prune their grapes. There are
mounds of boulders and dirt throughout and surrounding the city, closing off
accesss. The Israeli military has closed the two universities here. Three
thousand Palestinian shops cannot open.

It is far worse in other occupied Palestinian cities. In Nablus, Gaza and
Jenin people die daily. Most are civilians.

There are also attacks by Palestinians. A few days ago, a young man from
here found his way to the coastal Israeli city of Haifa and blew himself up
in a crowded bus. Seventeen died, including the young man. Two other local
boys dressed themselves as religious Jews and sneaked into a settlement on
the edge of this city where they killed a middle-aged couple and injured
eight others before soldiers killed them.

So much pain. So much destruction. So much terror. I cannot imagine the
suffering.

The response? Tit for tat. An eye for an eye. Yesterday morning the
Israeli military demolished the homes of the families of three young men
involved in attacks on Israeli civilians. Because houses here are usually
multi-family dwellings, dozens of people are likely now homeless. And today
nearly four hundred elementary school boys were not allowed to go to school.
CPTer Art Arbour said to a soldier: "You know this is wrong."

"I agree, but we have orders," the U.S.- born young man answered.

When will we realize that orders are not enough to justify grave human
rights violations? That revenge never justifies violence?

"The first and worst violence is the occupation," wrote Uri Avnery, a leader
of Gush Shalom, an Israeli peace organization. "Human rights are not a
special favour granted to Palestinians if they behave like good children."

When I express my horror concerning the situation Palestinians often shrug.
"This is normal," they respond. People in their thirties have never known
anything but military occupation. But they know they are lying. This is
not normal.