OccupationalHazard.org 10.28.03

The Occupation - 10/28/03

What suffering? The fabric of life is not torn

Akiva Eldar - Ha'aretz

When the Defense Ministry director general, Amos Yaron, the chief executive for the separation fence, is asked to comment on the suffering of the thousands of Palestinians whose lives have been made miserable by the fence, he tells the questioner to ask the people who send the suicide bombers.
On the other hand, his boss, Shaul Mofaz, commander in chief of the occupied territories, has never seen a Palestinian who has watched his home being cut off from his fields. The defense minster also has never heard of any Palestinian children needing to ask an Israeli soldier every morning for permission to pass to go to school. Last Friday, Mofaz looked straight into the cameras of Channel Two and said: "I am sure the fence does not harm the Palestinian fabric of life."
Apparently there's a plot by the director general, chief of staff, the major general of the IDF Central Command, and the government coordinator in the territories to hide the difficult conditions of the defense minister's subjects from him. As a service to Mofaz, here is a summary of some incidents that about the routine of the "Palestinian fabric of life." The stories are also evidence of a wide range of areas where the army could actually implement a policy of easing humanitarian conditions.
Last Wednesday, a Civil Administration car pulled into the little village of Aqaba, in the Jenin district, not far from the village of Tiasser. Aqaba, which is entirely in Area C, meaning fully under Israeli control and responsibility, consists of about 200 people living in 18 modest homes.
An army officer, accompanied by a group of soldiers and an IDF cameraman, went from house to house in the village and handed out a dozen demolition orders. The village head, Haj Sami Sadak, received a demolition order for the mosque and the kindergarten, where more than 40 of the village children go to school. "Where will we pray?" asked Sadak.
"Go to Tobas," said the officer. Before leaving behind a group of hardworking poor people whose entire world had just been ruined, the officer said they had three days to appeal the orders in the Beit El headquarters. "But all the roads are closed by checkpoints," the villagers pointed out. "That's your problem," said the officer.
Adam Keller, from Gush Shalom, has long followed the "fabric of life" in the village of Aqaba - many of the villagers are third and fourth generation - says the residents don't stop trying to get permission for building licenses and pubic buildings for their village. All the requests are rejected. Keller sent Mofaz a request to set aside the demolition decrees, which practically speaking means erasing the village off the face of the earth. It's not known whether that surprised Mofaz or kept him awake at night,
Unfortunately for the villagers of Aqaba, when their grandparents and great grandparents built their homes they did not take into account that their choice of location would obstruct the eastern fence that the Israeli defense minister insists on building as soon as possible.
According to Mofaz's route, the fence would split Aqaba, cutting it off from Tiasser, it's mother-village and then head south to Ma'ale Ephraim, the Israeli settlement. It's the destruction of a dozen homes, a kindergarten and a mosque. Isn't that "harm to the Palestinian fabric of life?"
The dwindling public coffers are not in Mofaz's way. Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, competing with Mofaz for Sharon's seat, won't dare do anything against such a popular plan. The only obstacle is the prime minister. Not that Sharon, the man who came up with the idea of Bantustine, is deterred by the idea of putting the Palestinians into corrals. After all, he's had the plan for years. But he prefers to wait for an opportunity to fulfill his vision without harming his fabric of relations with U.S. President George Bush.
It turns out that in Washington they found out the map of the Palestinian state recently published by Yuli Tamir MK was drafted on the basis of solid information that reached her from inside the defense establishment. The Americans warned Dov Weisglass, Sharon's lawyer-advisor, there there's a limit to their ability to defend something bordering on apartheid.
According to the Sharon-Mofaz plan, the 200 people of Aqaba are only a small minority of the 237,000 West Bankers who will find themselves outside the fence of the Palestinian "state," which will be no larger than 3,600 square kilometers.
A spokesman for the government coordinator in the territories said the demolition orders had nothing to do with the fence. They were against buildings that did not have proper licenses.
Torn fabric
Here's another story about Palestinians whose fabric of life has not been harmed by the fence, according to Mofaz. It's in a statement that attorney Shlomo Laker plans to present to the High Court as part of a petition, and which was sent to the legal advisor of the Judea and Samaria Command. It's a story about 77 men and women and 120 children, who live on the edges of A Tur, at the Mount of Olives, on the Jerusalem border.
The adults in the neighborhood have been living there since the mid-1950s. Two of the residential buildings in the neighborhood are inside the municipal area of the Israeli capital and their residents pay city taxes. The rest mostly work in Jerusalem, use its clinics and hospitals and attend educational institutions in the city's east.
Last month, when construction of the eastern part of the "Jerusalem envelope" began, the people of the neighborhood found themselves between the city boundary and the fence. Going west, into East Jerusalem was prohibited to them since they are considered residents of the West Bank. But moving east, to the West Bank, turned into a complicated project. An A Tur resident coming home from Bethlehem where they visited parents has to present an Israeli ID card or a permit to enter the country.
Sometimes, begging and pleading and explanations work, sometimes the A Tur person doesn't have all the papers demanded by the soldiers and police, and they are forced to stay outside the fence.
Border Patrol, who cover the the slopes of the Mt. of Olives, are somewhat confused between the fence and the municipal border. According to Laker, police have arrested residents of the village outside their homes on suspicion of being in the country illegally, even though they were not actually in the country, since their homes are outside Jerusalem's boundaries. A few have been taken back to the Bethlehem checkpoint and told never to return.
How will the legal advisors of the defense establishment deal with people who have become prisoners in their own homes and illegally on their land? Will they accede to the A Tur request to give them permanent passes to Jerusalem? Will they instruct the soldiers responsible for the fence to allow the people of A Tur to get home safely? Or if all that would be considered too soft on them, maybe they'll offer alternative land outside the fence, or even financial compensation?
No less interesting is how the High Court will deal with petitions from Palestinians across the West Bank and Jerusalem who demand the Israeli authorities allow them to go from place to place on their own land. One can also wonder if the justices will agree with the defense minister that there has been no harm done to the Palestinian fabric of life.
For peace
Mofaz's office said the reports yesterday on Israel Radio about turning illegal outposts into permanent settlements was inaccurate. It was only granting permission to eight outposts to install generators and the rest the items needed for the "security composite." All the outposts are in various stages of getting permits for permanent settlement. Until then the IDF must provide the residents with security.
Dozens of other illegal outposts, still under "examination" in the ministry, as well as those that were dismantled and then resurrected, are already getting a substantial portion of security allocations in the territories.
It turns out that since the the government decided to protect the criminals instead of arresting them and demolishing their homes, the army doesn't have enough forces to protect "legal" settlers and protect the "kosher" settlements. On the other hand, when the poor residents of Aqaba get fed up with running around for naught between the various administration offices and dare build a kindergarten without a license, the army is in a hurry to issue demolition orders.
The same authorities are responsible for the security of law-abiding Palestinians. But they are responsible for the criminals from the illegal outposts in the Eli and Yitzhar areas south of Nablus knew they could invade the olive groves of Al Sawaya and Inabus, two nearby villages, since the complaints filed with the authorities by those farmers in the past never went anywhere.
This time the criminals were not satisfied by stealing the olives ready for harvest. The villagers heard the sound of the chain-saws during the night and in the morning found 300 cut-down trees on their land. Like Mofaz and Sharon, the thugs acting in the name of Torah and the government of Israel are not bothered by the fabric of life of their neighbors.
A delegation from Gush Shalom and Rabbis for Human Rights, who went to the village of Inabus in solidarity with the villagers, were attacked by a gang of settlers. A British reporter covering the event was injured and taken to hospital.
The outpost partying might come to an end soon. In contacts with Shimon Peres, it turns out Ahmed Qureia will retract his resignation next week, in a compromise with Arafat that gives Qureia the interior ministry with Jibril Rajoub as deputy in the West Bank and one of Mohammed Dahlan's people as deputy for Gaza. Qureia will make some moves evidence of his intent to follow the road map. A prevailing view in the political establishment is that pressure from elements in the defense establishment who have reached the conclusion that the IDF cannot be victorious over the Palestinians, and the Geneva understandings document will combine to force Sharon to do something too, for peace.
The basis could be the Peres-Abu Ala plan, from 2001, when there was a unity government. After all, everyone involved then is in the picture - Sharon, Peres, Bush and Qureia. Sharon can assume that if the move leaves the ministerial patrons for the outposts outside the government, he can always find the good old Labor Party leader.

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What suffering? The fabric of life is not torn
Akiva Eldar - Ha'aretz





When the Defense Ministry director general, Amos Yaron, the chief executive for the separation fence, is asked to comment on the suffering of the thousands of Palestinians whose lives have been made miserable by the fence, he tells the questioner to ask the people who send the suicide bombers. On the other hand, his boss, Shaul Mofaz, commander in chief of the occupied territories, has never seen a Palestinian who has watched his home being cut off from his fields. The defense minster also has never heard of any Palestinian children needing to ask an Israeli soldier every morning for permission to pass to go to school. Last Friday, Mofaz looked straight into the cameras of Channel Two and said: "I am sure the fence does not harm the Palestinian fabric of life." Apparently there's a plot by the director general, chief of staff, the major general of the IDF Central Command, and the government coordinator in the territories to hide the difficult conditions of the defense minister's subjects from him. As a service to Mofaz, here is a summary of some incidents that about the routine of the "Palestinian fabric of life." The stories are also evidence of a wide range of areas where the army could actually implement a policy of easing humanitarian conditions. Last Wednesday, a Civil Administration car pulled into the little village of Aqaba, in the Jenin district, not far from the village of Tiasser. Aqaba, which is entirely in Area C, meaning fully under Israeli control and responsibility, consists of about 200 people living in 18 modest homes. An army officer, accompanied by a group of soldiers and an IDF cameraman, went from house to house in the village and handed out a dozen demolition orders. The village head, Haj Sami Sadak, received a demolition order for the mosque and the kindergarten, where more than 40 of the village children go to school. "Where will we pray?" asked Sadak. "Go to Tobas," said the officer. Before leaving behind a group of hardworking poor people whose entire world had just been ruined, the officer said they had three days to appeal the orders in the Beit El headquarters. "But all the roads are closed by checkpoints," the villagers pointed out. "That's your problem," said the officer. Adam Keller, from Gush Shalom, has long followed the "fabric of life" in the village of Aqaba - many of the villagers are third and fourth generation - says the residents don't stop trying to get permission for building licenses and pubic buildings for their village. All the requests are rejected. Keller sent Mofaz a request to set aside the demolition decrees, which practically speaking means erasing the village off the face of the earth. It's not known whether that surprised Mofaz or kept him awake at night, Unfortunately for the villagers of Aqaba, when their grandparents and great grandparents built their homes they did not take into account that their choice of location would obstruct the eastern fence that the Israeli defense minister insists on building as soon as possible. According to Mofaz's route, the fence would split Aqaba, cutting it off from Tiasser, it's mother-village and then head south to Ma'ale Ephraim, the Israeli settlement. It's the destruction of a dozen homes, a kindergarten and a mosque. Isn't that "harm to the Palestinian fabric of life?" The dwindling public coffers are not in Mofaz's way. Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, competing with Mofaz for Sharon's seat, won't dare do anything against such a popular plan. The only obstacle is the prime minister. Not that Sharon, the man who came up with the idea of Bantustine, is deterred by the idea of putting the Palestinians into corrals. After all, he's had the plan for years. But he prefers to wait for an opportunity to fulfill his vision without harming his fabric of relations with U.S. President George Bush. It turns out that in Washington they found out the map of the Palestinian state recently published by Yuli Tamir MK was drafted on the basis of solid information that reached her from inside the defense establishment. The Americans warned Dov Weisglass, Sharon's lawyer-advisor, there there's a limit to their ability to defend something bordering on apartheid. According to the Sharon-Mofaz plan, the 200 people of Aqaba are only a small minority of the 237,000 West Bankers who will find themselves outside the fence of the Palestinian "state," which will be no larger than 3,600 square kilometers. A spokesman for the government coordinator in the territories said the demolition orders had nothing to do with the fence. They were against buildings that did not have proper licenses. Torn fabric Here's another story about Palestinians whose fabric of life has not been harmed by the fence, according to Mofaz. It's in a statement that attorney Shlomo Laker plans to present to the High Court as part of a petition, and which was sent to the legal advisor of the Judea and Samaria Command. It's a story about 77 men and women and 120 children, who live on the edges of A Tur, at the Mount of Olives, on the Jerusalem border. The adults in the neighborhood have been living there since the mid-1950s. Two of the residential buildings in the neighborhood are inside the municipal area of the Israeli capital and their residents pay city taxes. The rest mostly work in Jerusalem, use its clinics and hospitals and attend educational institutions in the city's east. Last month, when construction of the eastern part of the "Jerusalem envelope" began, the people of the neighborhood found themselves between the city boundary and the fence. Going west, into East Jerusalem was prohibited to them since they are considered residents of the West Bank. But moving east, to the West Bank, turned into a complicated project. An A Tur resident coming home from Bethlehem where they visited parents has to present an Israeli ID card or a permit to enter the country. Sometimes, begging and pleading and explanations work, sometimes the A Tur person doesn't have all the papers demanded by the soldiers and police, and they are forced to stay outside the fence. Border Patrol, who cover the the slopes of the Mt. of Olives, are somewhat confused between the fence and the municipal border. According to Laker, police have arrested residents of the village outside their homes on suspicion of being in the country illegally, even though they were not actually in the country, since their homes are outside Jerusalem's boundaries. A few have been taken back to the Bethlehem checkpoint and told never to return. How will the legal advisors of the defense establishment deal with people who have become prisoners in their own homes and illegally on their land? Will they accede to the A Tur request to give them permanent passes to Jerusalem? Will they instruct the soldiers responsible for the fence to allow the people of A Tur to get home safely? Or if all that would be considered too soft on them, maybe they'll offer alternative land outside the fence, or even financial compensation? No less interesting is how the High Court will deal with petitions from Palestinians across the West Bank and Jerusalem who demand the Israeli authorities allow them to go from place to place on their own land. One can also wonder if the justices will agree with the defense minister that there has been no harm done to the Palestinian fabric of life. For peace Mofaz's office said the reports yesterday on Israel Radio about turning illegal outposts into permanent settlements was inaccurate. It was only granting permission to eight outposts to install generators and the rest the items needed for the "security composite." All the outposts are in various stages of getting permits for permanent settlement. Until then the IDF must provide the residents with security. Dozens of other illegal outposts, still under "examination" in the ministry, as well as those that were dismantled and then resurrected, are already getting a substantial portion of security allocations in the territories. It turns out that since the the government decided to protect the criminals instead of arresting them and demolishing their homes, the army doesn't have enough forces to protect "legal" settlers and protect the "kosher" settlements. On the other hand, when the poor residents of Aqaba get fed up with running around for naught between the various administration offices and dare build a kindergarten without a license, the army is in a hurry to issue demolition orders. The same authorities are responsible for the security of law-abiding Palestinians. But they are responsible for the criminals from the illegal outposts in the Eli and Yitzhar areas south of Nablus knew they could invade the olive groves of Al Sawaya and Inabus, two nearby villages, since the complaints filed with the authorities by those farmers in the past never went anywhere. This time the criminals were not satisfied by stealing the olives ready for harvest. The villagers heard the sound of the chain-saws during the night and in the morning found 300 cut-down trees on their land. Like Mofaz and Sharon, the thugs acting in the name of Torah and the government of Israel are not bothered by the fabric of life of their neighbors. A delegation from Gush Shalom and Rabbis for Human Rights, who went to the village of Inabus in solidarity with the villagers, were attacked by a gang of settlers. A British reporter covering the event was injured and taken to hospital. The outpost partying might come to an end soon. In contacts with Shimon Peres, it turns out Ahmed Qureia will retract his resignation next week, in a compromise with Arafat that gives Qureia the interior ministry with Jibril Rajoub as deputy in the West Bank and one of Mohammed Dahlan's people as deputy for Gaza. Qureia will make some moves evidence of his intent to follow the road map. A prevailing view in the political establishment is that pressure from elements in the defense establishment who have reached the conclusion that the IDF cannot be victorious over the Palestinians, and the Geneva understandings document will combine to force Sharon to do something too, for peace. The basis could be the Peres-Abu Ala plan, from 2001, when there was a unity government. After all, everyone involved then is in the picture - Sharon, Peres, Bush and Qureia. Sharon can assume that if the move leaves the ministerial patrons for the outposts outside the government, he can always find the good old Labor Party leader.
Back to front