The Israeli military check point just across the Old
Hebron road from Tantur, the University of Notre Dame operated ecumenical study
center, is gone. Situated at the Israeli unilaterally imposed northern limit
of Bethlehem, vehicular traffic can now zip past at a purposeful pace. Just
a few weeks ago they were obliged to often wait in long lines while waiting
one by one to be appraised and scrutinized by border police before being allowed
to proceed in or out of Bethlehem.
Also gone is the covered but open to the elements passageway that ran a hundred
yards or so up from Bethlehem to where IDs were checked. Rain soaked Palestinians
were also obliged to wait in line for an often capriciously applied signal to
obediently shuffle forward in order to undergo a similar scrutiny by other guards
seated warm and dry in a heated make shift cabin.
And gone too is the small contingent of soldiers patrolling the area around
the checkpoint who in blatant violation of an international agreement with the
Vatican would suddenly invade the Tantur grounds in order to flush out and round
up needy Palestinians who, hopefully hidden by the center's high stone wall,
would try to furtively circumvent the check point. The need for stealth was
because their West Bank IDs would not allow them to be in Jerusalem. Sometimes
the soldiers, again thumbing their nose at diplomatic protocol, also would sneak
into the grounds and hide out. Then guns at the ready they would triumphantly
leap out from behind an interior wall or rocks to halt unwary Palestinians in
their tracks. Once apprehended, the unfortunates would be herded out of Tantur
to the checkpoint where they would be compelled to wait with others caught earlier
- sometimes for hours - before being allowed to move on.
The check point by Tantur is not needed any more because the Jerusalem/Bethlehem
border has been unilaterally moved three quarters of a mile south to a point
well inside what was Bethlehem's northern municipal boundary. The Bethlehem
land in between has been annexed into the anachronistic Jewish State. So now
even a stroll across Tantur from one end to the other still leaves one where
one started…in Jerusalem.
Once again as with the entire history of the occupation, where the West Bank
is concerned, border shrinkage, i. e. galloping annexation, continues to be
both a de facto and de jure U. S.-encouraged-made-in-Israel dynamic. Let's not
be fooled. The real "disengagement" of catastrophic consequence all
along has been the unilateral non-stop ethnic cleansing of Palestinians by Israelis
from not just their land but their property…not the other way around.
The so-called Israeli "disengagement" from Gaza and a relative handful
of squatter homes in the West Bank was a pragmatic military redeployment in
recognition of a new Zionist geopolitical reality: A geographic Greater Israel
is in all likelihood not going to be as large as once giddily imagined by Israel's
religious and secular zealots and their international fellow travelers. But
the ruling Israeli establishment is not giving any thing away. The militant
Zionist dream of a Greater Israel is simply being downsized a bit in order to
continue Israel's domination and iron fisted control of the entire region. That's
hardly disengagement.
That real "disengagement," the disengagement that really is, commenced
even before Israel's war to establish sovereignty in 1948 began. In the 19 years
between that war and the one in 1967 more than 400 Arab villages in Israel…not
the West Bank…were "disengaged" from history, literally removed
from the map Carthage style along with three quarters of a million of their
residents. After 1967 the process of "disengaging" Palestinians from
the rest of the land coveted by the Israeli political/military-industrial plutocracy
picked up steam.
Long before the brutal subtractive unilateralism of the Sharon led Likud party
(and before him, the Begin/Shamir/Netanyahu led Likud, there was the calamitous
unilateralism of long gone Labor Party plutocrats: Meier, Dayan, Rabin, and
the sole left wing wolf in dove's clothing still hanging in there, Shimon Peres.
All of them participated in the establishment of the squatter communities still
euphemistically described as settlements, as well as approving quadrupling Israeli
Jerusalem's size by annexing Arab East Jerusalem and a significant portion of
the West Bank into East Jerusalem. Then over the years many of the Palestinian
residents were displaced by tens of thousands of Jews who were moved into their
midst. The process began right after the 1967 Six day war: the preemptive campaign
that turned into conquest and then into one of the last and currently longest
running of the massive, ruthless, brutal old style colonial occupations in history.
"This land is my land. This land is not your land…."
So the blatant expansion continues marked by a facetious sign on the Bethlehem
side of the huge monstrous teutonically efficient newly privatized Israeli controlled
border crossing and customs zone. The crossing and the customs sheds are protected
by the massive twenty nine foot high "annexation" wall, equally massive
steel gates, and the military standing guard at each access point into the zone.
Despite the pristine squeaky-clean serpentine interior which provides ample
protection from the elements, the sign which says, "Welcome to Jerusalem,"
screams mockingly and impudently at every Palestinian needing to pass through.
It also sends the same message to the internationals also passing by, who over
the years have witnessed Israel's relentless annexation of West Bank areas into
an increasingly Judaized East Jerusalem. They understand very well the both
ironic and cynical main stream Israeli nose thumbing that the sign represents.
And it goes without saying that there is no way Palestinians can sneak around
this new improved checkpoint like they were often able to do when it was back
up the road a piece along side Tantur.
For those leaving the still expanding new Jerusalem side of the wall and passing
through it to the still shrinking new Bethlehem side, the Israeli Ministry of
Tourism has painted for all to see another sign, a huge one, in three languages:
English, Arabic and Hebrew. It says "Peace Be With You." Late last
month, when I passed from new Jerusalem into new Bethlehem for the first time
since leaving the occupied territories in October, I immediately imagined a
different and what I thought was a more truthful subtext that is contemptuous
rather than cheery: "Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter Here." And then
I thought that another more honest statement reflecting the relentless Israeli
imposed subtractive facts on the ground in the West Bank would be, "Piece
Be With You" instead of the hypocritical "Peace Be With You."
But when I passed through the wall to the other side and saw the "Welcome
to Jerusalem" greeting for the first time, I thought that the two signs
combined gave new meaning to the phrase, "Oh little town of Bethlehem"
with the emphasis on "little." With respect to territorial integrity
this latest turn of events, which continues to be replicated elsewhere in the
West Bank, supports the awful truth that today is worse than yesterday for Palestine;
and tomorrow will be worse than today.
Having said all of the above on this day of all days without confirming that
"yes" I am aware that there is an historic election taking place in
the West Bank and Gaza tomorrow, I am confirming it now. And I think it is accurate
to also confirm that I believe that in all likelihood it is going to send a
fateful message to the PLO about its credibility with many of its own people.
But I sadly also believe that such a message over the short or medium term will
have very little impact on the "Piece Process" or the continuing disengagement
of Palestinians from their land and property. That's because every Palestinian,
as well as those internationals passing through the new Bethlehem portal/checkpoint,
who have experienced and witnessed the onerous and on going land grab, understand
completely that the "Welcome to Jerusalem" sign is just another visual
exemplification of main stream Israel's defiantly insolent answer to bedrock
Palestinian desires. Among the most pertinent are 1) the desperate need for
existentially meaningful effective legal due process; 2) an honest to goodness
process of self-determination epitomized by a Palestinian Authority/Government-in-the-making
of Palestinians, by Palestinians, for Palestinians of every political persuasion
who will be elected with out interference or threats by either Israel, the U.
S. or the European Union; and which 3) finally and actually will be able to
negotiate into existence a viable Palestinian state secure in every sense of
the word within more or less the 1967 Green Line borders.
I would like very much to be proved wrong about all this. But don't hold your
breath waiting for 1 through 3 above to happen.