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Dear
friends,
I
pass this article to you after spending earlier in
the day two plus hours at the Kalandia checkpoint
(between Jerusalem and Ramallah). I spent last night
in Jerusalem with an Aunt that had a heart attack
and was rushed to a Palestinian hospital there 2 nights
ago. As I waited to re-enter Ramallah today before
our daily curfew was re-imposed I stood in line with
about 100 others waiting to enter
pass the Israeli soldiers. Today was extremely hot,
over 100 degrees, and I just stared at the babies
in strollers and elderly people that just barley were
able to even stand in line. It is hard to believe
that this line has become a daly routine for many.
Those waiting looked numb to the abuse that this routine
really is.
Then
the Israelis soldiers, 3 of the worse I've seen in
a long time, decided that the line must move back
before they continue checking each person, one by
one. The 3 just pulled up chairs, sat, and started
laughing and joking at us, why we would not move back.
It was so packed we could'nt, but that meant nothing
to them. One soldier came to the front of the 2 person
line (which was by now 6 persons wide) and started
yelling in a hand-held public address speaker. He
put the speaker in the ears of people and yelled in
Hebrew, BACK!. He did this in the most provocative
way possible. When he came to a 25-30 year old man
next to me and did the same, the man pushed the speaker
away. This triggered a shouting match and then another
soldier joined and the young man was hauled away while
being hit with a billy club on the head. I have no
idea where he ended up.
An
hour after that another bearded Palestinian man worked
his way to the front of the line to yelled out to
the soldiers that it was hot and he demanded that
the women and children be allowed to pass. The soldier
made a smart remark in Hebrew and the two got into
a shouting match in Hebrew. This Palestinian had a
Jerusalem ID and was defiant. He was screaming to
the soldier that if he took
pleasure in seeing small kids and babies sweat in
the line that he should not be serving his country...they
went on and on for more than 15 minutes while standing
20 meters apart. Then the soldier flipped out, rushed
to the man (who had about 100 people behind him) and
cocked his rifle while threatening to shoot him. A
second Ethiopian Soldier soldier did the same. At
this tense moment we were able to convince the Palestinian
man to back down for the sake of the others who had
to pass into Ramallah before the curfew. In the line
were 2 German women and when this guy backed into
the line he started discussing with them in fluent
German. Interestingly, the man looked at the crowd
and said "they think those of us who challenge
them are crazy, I speak 5 languages and us 100, no,
the
children alone amongst us 100, have more humanity
than the entire IDF. They must be challenged"
It
took another 30 minutes before things settled down
and the line started moving again, one by one. We
let all the women pass first and them the men lined
up to pass. As soon as I was allowed to pass I heard
a lot of yelling again. I looked back before making
the 300m walk to the other side of the checkpoint
and the soldiers had just gotten word that a bombing
happened in Jerusalem. They moved barbed wire in front
of the line and told everyone that no one else would
enter Ramallah today. There was a tremendous amount
of yelling as I rushed to get to the other side.
Reading
the below article tonight, puts the above day to day
humiliation in perspective. Tomorrow I will try to
speak in person to this Israeli and thank him for
his understanding of our reality. I can only wish
others would see the occupation in person so they
can gain insight into why so many Palestinians are
today equalling life to death.
Regards,
Sam
The
Ethics of Revenge,
by a father who lost his son to terror
A
speech made by Yitzhak Frankenthal, Chairman
of the Families Forum, at a rally in Jerusalem on
Saturday, July 27, 2002, outside the Prime Minister’s
residence.
My
beloved son Arik, my own flesh and blood, was murdered
by Palestinians. My tall blue-eyed golden-haired son
who was always smiling with the innocence of a child
and the understanding of an adult. My son. If to hit
his killers, innocent Palestinian children and other
civilians would have to be killed, I would ask the
security forces to wait for another opportunity. If
the security forces were to kill
innocent Palestinians as well, I would tell them they
were no better than my son’s killers.
My
beloved son Arik was murdered by a Palestinian. Should
the security forces have information of this murderer’s
whereabouts, and should it turn out that he was surrounded
by innocent children and other Palestinian civilians,
then - even if the security forces knew that the killer
was planning another murderous attack that was to
be launched within hours and they now had the choice
of curbing a
terror attack that would kill innocent Israeli civilians
but at the cost of hitting innocent Palestinians,
I would tell the security forces not to seek revenge
but to try to avoid and prevent the death of innocent
civilians, be they Israelis or Palestinians.
I
would rather have the finger that pushes the trigger
or the button that drops the bomb tremble before it
kills my son’s murderer, than for innocent civilians
to be killed. I would say to the security forces:
do not kill the killer. Rather, bring him before an
Israeli court. You are not the judiciary. Your only
motivation should not be vengeance, but the prevention
of any injury to innocent civilians.
Ethics
are not black and white - they are all white. Ethics
have to be free of vengefulness and rashness. Every
act must be carefully weighed before a decision is
made to see whether it meets the strict ethical criteria.
Ethics cannot be left to the discretion of anyone
who is frivolous or trigger-happy. Our ethics are
hanging by a thread, at the mercy of every soldier
and politician. I am not at all sure that I am willing
to delegate my ethics to them.
It
is unethical to kill innocent Israeli or Palestinian
women and children. It is also unethical to control
another nation and to lead it to lose its humaneness.
It is patently unethical to drop a bomb that kills
innocent Palestinians. It is blatantly unethical to
wreak vengeance upon innocent bystanders. It is, on
the other hand, supremely ethical to prevent the death
of any human being. But if such prevention causes
the futile death of others, the ethical foundation
for such prevention is lost.
A
nation that cannot draw the line is doomed to eventually
apply unethical measures against its own people. The
worst in my mind is not what has already happened
but what I am sure one day will. And it will - because
ethics are now being twisted and the political and
military leadership does not even have the most basic
integrity to say: “we are sorry”.
We
lost sight of our ethics long before the suicide bombings.
The breaking point was when we started to control
another nation. My son Arik was born into a democracy
with a chance for a decent, settled life. Arik’s
killer was born into an appalling occupation, into
an ethical chaos. Had my son been born in his stead,
he may have ended up doing the same. Had I myself
been born into the political and ethical chaos that
is the Palestinians’ daily reality, I would certainly
have tried to kill and hurt the occupier; had I not,
I would have betrayed my essence as a free man. Let
all the self-righteous who speak of ruthless Palestinian
murderers take a hard look in the mirror and ask themselves
what they would have done had they
been the ones living under occupation. I can say for
myself that I, Yitzhak Frankenthal, would have undoubtedly
become a freedom fighter and would have killed as
many on the other side as I possibly could. It is
this depraved hypocrisy that pushes the Palestinians
to fight us relentlessly. Our double standard that
allows us to boast the highest military ethics, while
the same military slays innocent children. This lack
of ethics is bound to corrupt us.
My
son Arik was murdered when he was a soldier by Palestinian
fighters who believed in the ethical basis of their
struggle against the occupation. My son Arik was not
murdered because he was Jewish but because he is part
of the nation that occupies the territory of another.
I
know these are concepts that are unpalatable, but
I must voice them loud and clear, because they come
from my heart - the heart of a father whose son did
not get to live because his people were blinded with
power. As much as I would like to do so, I cannot
say that the Palestinians are to blame for my son’s
death. That would be the easy way out, but it is we,
Israelis, who are to blame because of the occupation.
Anyone who refuses to heed this awful truth will eventually
lead to our destruction.
The
Palestinians cannot drive us away - they have long
acknowledged our existence. They have been ready to
make peace with us; it is we who are unwilling to
make peace with them. It is we who insist on maintaining
our control over them; it is we who escalate the situation
in the region and feed the cycle of bloodshed. I regret
to say it, but the blame is entirely ours.
I
do not mean to absolve the Palestinians and by no
means justify attacks against Israeli civilians. No
attack against civilians can be condoned. But as an
occupation force it is we who trample over human dignity,
it is we who crush the liberty of Palestinians and
it is we who push an entire nation to crazy acts of
despair. Finally, I call on my brothers and sisters
in the settlements - see what we have
come to.
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