The truth about the "peaceful" parts of the West Bank

The largest key in the world! Outside Aida Refugee Camp. One day maybe all doors will be open!

Introduction by Sharen Green

Following her recent tour with ICAHD (Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions), Mary, a member of CAMPAIN, gives a searing picture of how much more hazardous and unbearable life is for Palestinians in the West Bank since October 23.

Mary provides numerous examples of cruel and illegal Israeli behaviour towards Palestinians both in the occupied territories and within its own borders.

In doing so she gives the lie to some myths which Israel has successfully imposed on the world with its deliberate misrepresentation (hasbara which Israelis like to translate as explaining rather than propaganda!). She corrects the idea that the only democracy in the Middle East is truly democratic.  

She refers to Israeli-only roads – known locally as apartheid roads – in the occupied West Bank. You need Israeli number plates to use these highways. If your plates are green – i.e. Palestinian you will be stopped and could face prison.

And we see how Bedouin Israelis in the Negev/Naqab desert, an integral part of Israel itself, are treated. Forcibly removed from their villages, they are herded into reservations to make way for Jew-only new towns, even though they are Israeli citizens and pay their taxes. What price democracy?

The false claim that the IDF is the most moral army in the world is also exposed.

The army routinely raids a refugee camp and specifically a youth centre for training purposes and, in spite of its much vaunted purity of arms, it tortures civilians.

Of special interest to the Lambeth Witness Group is the appeal from Christian Tent of Nations leader Daoud Nassar, who is surrounded by ever-expanding illegal Israeli settlements. He feels let down by the lack of words and action from the Church and appealed to us to pursue the Church in the UK for action and support for the Palestinians.

This relates to my own experience in the UK

I witnessed this pushback by the Anglican church at a recent diocesan synod. A motion to pray, visit and inform ourselves about the Palestinian plight was suspended because of the assertions from the floor.

One church leader claimed that Israel was a democracy in spite of eyewitness evidence to the contrary.

A woman of mixed Anglican/Jewish heritage said she experienced the motion as a blow to her solar plexus as if even the modest suggestions to support hard-pressed Palestinians undermined Jewish identity.

The atmosphere in the room changed palpably against the motion as this woman, living apparently very comfortably in a well-off area of Southern England, self-identified (quite sincerely, I’m sure) as a victim. A stunning victory of the hasbara project.

The LWG and CAMPAIN itself have a way to go.

The report, by a participant in a recent ICAHD tour

Travelling at this point was both revealing and alarming.  Israel is scrutinising visitors using the electronic visa to filter out unwelcome arrivals. Fear and control maintain the Occupation and they dominate life. We heard from a wide range of speakers and met many who are living in constant fear.  Nothing about the place and its appearance felt normal and the sense of danger for the Palestinians is ever present. 

The world has changed in the Occupied Territories since 7th October, 2023.  We witnessed an increase in disruption, imprisonments, expulsions, surveillance as well as more lawlessness from the settlers.  Inevitably, there has also been a dramatic drop in international visitors which has resulted in high unemployment in the tourism industry compounded by the ending of employment for West Bank Palestinians in Israel.  There was a sense of resignation that the world knows what is happening but does nothing.  

A refugee camp trying to deal with trauma

Bethlehem’s Aida Refugee Camp where 7,000 people now live is next to the large Israeli military camp and the eight-metre-high separation wall.  The wall displays ever more graffiti telling tragic stories about its impact on families.  The camp is under surveillance constantly and the IDF (Israeli Defence Force) often raids the camp because the camp is used for military training.

The Aida Youth Centre provides a safe and nurturing space for young people providing them with ways to deal with trauma. But the staff have been arbitrarily imprisoned by the Israeli authorities. One of them described his experience of eight months of incarceration which included torture.

During our stay at the larger Deheisheh Refugee Camp, also in Bethlehem, the Israeli authorities distributed leaflets to its 19,000 residents: 

Residents of Deheisheh Camp, Be Alert! 

As you have already seen, the camps in the northern West Bank have paid a heavy price due to terrorist and militant activities. 

Wherever there is terrorism, life is damaged. 

Security forces will use all available means against any attempt or activity of this kind. 

The one who has been warned is now without excuse! 

Bedouin and the Negev Desert 

We visited the Negev/Naqab desert (within Israel) where Bedouins have traditionally farmed for generations.  Now the government policy is to concentrate the communities into as small an area as possible, taking their grazing lands.  There are currently 35 villages that Israel has always failed to recognise, leaving them liable to demolition orders and without any services at all.  One recently demolished village we saw, Umm Al Hiram, used to have 2,000 villagers.  They have been forcibly moved into Hura which is like a reservation. 

We saw the JNF (Jewish National Fund)-owned bulldozers still there and the only sign of life was a man guarding them.  Jewish families are already camping nearby, waiting to move in.  Unlike in the Bedouin communities, electricity and water resources will be available to them.   The new town is set to house more than 20,000. As our guide pointed out, they have the whole desert to build on, but the authorities choose to erase any trace of the former Palestinian village.   

Rural communities and the Jordan Valley 

We visited the Jordan Valley Solidarity Campaign where international volunteers play a major role in providing a protective presence to defend local Palestinian herding communities from Israeli settler violence, putting themselves at significant personal risk to do so.  They work in shifts to provide cover for the herdsmen at night as it is then that settlers may come and steal or kill livestock.

Rabbi Arik Ascherman of the Torat Tzedek-Torah of Justice has been witnessing and protecting local herding communities for decades and reports that things have never been as bad as they are right now. The settlers have become increasingly emboldened to act above the law, compounded by the election of Trump more recently.  The local army will often take their orders from the settlers, and it can be difficult to distinguish who is who as settlers sometimes dress up as soldiers and arms have been freely distributed to settlers since 7/10.   Rabbi Arik is finding fewer Israeli officials who will do the right thing and is feeling more isolated than ever before.   

He told us that the policies of Israel and the actions of the fanatical religious settlers are dividing the Jewish communities that he speaks to in the USA.  Growing numbers of younger Jews are opposing the Occupation and the situation is challenging traditional Jewish ways of thinking.  He feels a sense of crisis for the Jews, that we have become so extreme we are destroying ourselves. 

Tent of Nations  https://tentofnations.com

 

This Christian hill top farm is located between Bethlehem and Hebron and has been besieged for decades by encroaching settlements. Israeli settlers claim the hilltops to establish their settlements and thus covet the Tent of Nations. 

The farm possesses all the documents proving ownership. However, the Israeli authorities have not accepted them and the family has been trapped in a legal battle since 1991.  

The Tent of Nations has built an international reputation as a peace-building and non-violent resistance community that welcomes many international visitors every year.

Having visited this place in 2016, I found the contrast very dispiriting.  It was very quiet when we visited and leader Daoud Nassar seemed exhausted. 

He feels let down by the lack of words and action from the Church and appealed to us to pursue the Church in the UK for action and support for the Palestinians.  We could see containers placed on the other side of his fence very close to his property, which usually means that settlers are preparing to establish an outpost.   

Division in the community 

I became more aware this time of the division that has been sown between Palestinian people by the system that Israel uses of fragmenting the Palestinian population. They experience different treatment and rights depending upon where they live – Israeli Palestinians, West Bank residents, in refugee camps, East Jerusalem and those in Gaza.  This creates a situation where Palestinians are cut off from each other and makes it impossible to meet, organise or show solidarity. 

We heard from (recently arrested) Mahmoud Muna at the Educational Bookshop [i] that Palestinians students in East Jerusalem may choose to attend a university in Israel because travel is easier – no checkpoints or delays.  There is a sense of the Jews and Palestinians becoming incorporated but not integrated in Jerusalem. He described it not as a melting pot, but more of a mixed salad. 

Awad Abdelfattah, leader of One Democratic State Campaign said many Palestinians are in favour of a single state but don’t want to speak up as going away from the Two State solution could lose European support and funding.  The Palestine Authority (PA) also falls into this group, fearing that it would lose international support if it abandoned the Two State idea. 

Awad also told us that all protest is shut down. He commented that Palestinian solidarity across the world has been greater than it has been in Israel/Palestine and it has been moving and much appreciated.  Again, we heard how Palestinians in Israel have been fired from their jobs for showing any sympathy with Gaza. 

On his recent release from prison Nael Barghouti said that Palestinians have a double burden:

to liberate our land and liberate the Jews from Zionism. 

According to Awad, a few marginalised groups in Israel are trying to do just that.  

We spent a lot of time with Jeff Halper of ICAHD. He illustrated the ongoing apartheid system.  We saw in East Jerusalem where illegal Jewish settlements will be connected by a flyover to enable Jewish settlers to drive around without touching Palestinian neighbourhoods, while Palestinians living in its path will not receive any improved services – part of the continued drive to make life intolerable and difficult to remain.

Jeff helped us understand Israel’s settler colonial agenda and that to achieve its goals, it includes the use of genocide. It happened in 1948 when the state of Israel was established, and it is happening again now.

Mary B., 23/4/25

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[i] Recently raided – see here

https://apnews.com/article/israel-palestinians-police-jerusalem-bookstore-raid-rights-af721d98f55ec3103c2f90cf6013263f