3 - 9 January 2002
Issue No.567
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 3 - 9 January 2002 Issue No.567 |
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You'll never walk alone
Peace activists from Europe and the United States have been staging solidarity demonstrations in Bethlehem and Jerusalem to tell Palestinians they are not alone in facing Israeli occupation. Michael Jansen accompanied the activists
The usual throng of thousands of traditional Christian pilgrims celebrating the birth of Jesus during the holiday season were missing from Bethlehem this Christmas. But Manger Square and the narrow streets of the little town received 300 "peace pilgrims" on Monday, campaigning against Israel's occupation of the Holy Land.
They ranged in age from 19 to 70 and came from many countries: the US, Britain, France, Monaco, Holland, Germany and Sweden. Amongst them were a Roman Catholic priest from the State of Michigan, Jewish activists from New York and California and a native American from Boston, a retired British probation officer from London, teachers, doctors, lawyers and students.
The activists had taken the brave decision to dedicate the last two weeks of 2001 to Palestinian independence. They paid their own airfares and room and board. They braved physical abuse by the Israeli army and courted arrest. They taunted Israeli tanks parked outside Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's office in Ramallah and removed the earth roadblocks that surrounded a village in the Nablus area.
They set up a Christmas tree outside Orient House, closed by Israeli government order since August, and forced a pair of Israeli tanks to pull back from a northern West Bank village. They managed to open the road from Ramallah to Bir Zeit University -- for a day. They were stopped by the Israeli army from making solidarity visits to Gaza and Hebron.
On Christmas day, more than 200 peace pilgrims joined hundreds of Palestinian citizens from Bethlehem, Beit Jala and Beit Sahour for a march to Jerusalem. They assembled at Shepherds' Field in Beit Sahour where, according to tradition, Angels announced the birth of Jesus to shepherds minding their flocks, 2001 years ago.
Palestinians and peace pilgrims carrying large purple candles walked to the burnt-out Paradise Hotel in central Bethlehem, at the edge of West Bank territory fully occupied by Israel (Area C). Foreign activists led the procession, bearing banners that read "Free Palestine Now" and "History Repeats Itself, Yesterday Nero, Today Sharon."
When they reached the recently expanded and "hardened" Israeli checkpoint between Bethlehem and Jerusalem, the peace pilgrims formed a human shield to protect the Palestinians from attack and arrest by the Israeli army. At first the marchers were confronted by only a handful of armed Israeli troops who were pushed through the checkpoint. Scores of heavily armed Israeli forces quickly converged on the area, blocking the road with their vehicles. Amongst the Israelis were a unit of renegade "South Lebanon Army" militiamen led by a civilian cheerleader who issued commands in Lebanese-accented Arabic.
After more than an hour and a half at the checkpoint, the demonstrators -- who were singing "We Shall Overcome," the US civil rights protest hymn of the 1960s -- turned round and walked back to Bethlehem. On the morning of 31 December, peace pilgrims and Palestinian protesters returned and were blocked once again, this time on the road to Jerusalem. The protesters were demonstrating that there is no freedom of worship in the lands occupied by Israel. Their demonstration also proved that Israel's declaration that it was lifting the closure on Bethlehem was a hollow gesture.
The peace pilgrims did not achieve any enduring benefits on the ground for the Palestinians who remain under siege and blockade in more than 200 isolated islets of land in the West Bank and Gaza. What the pilgrims did achieve was a moral victory over Israel during this well organised and well coordinated campaign.
They mounted a sustained challenge to the Israeli army, undermining its physical and spiritual authority. The only response Israel had to the peace activists was force: M-16 rifles, for the most part, but on occasion, concussion grenades and tear gas. One mature soldier, helmeted and heavily weighed down with weaponry, seemed uneasy when asked by Al- Ahram Weekly why he was ready to make war on unarmed protesters. His reply: "We are told what to do. We are just reserve soldiers. It is not us who decide."
The peace pilgrims showed Palestinians that they are not alone in their struggle for independence and that well organised peaceful protests can be an alternative to stone throwing and armed struggle. The late Faisal Husseini, the leading Palestinian figure in occupied Jerusalem, said two weeks after Al- Aqsa Intifada erupted, "We must curb the Israeli use of guns by using peaceful means of protest. We must bring the Israelis down to our level [of resistance] rather than rise to their [murderous] levels." The presence of the peace pilgrims made it more difficult for the Israelis to use their full military muscle and encouraged Palestinians to try again with Gandhian methods rather than with the gun.
Back home, the peace pilgrims will tell others what they have seen and done on the front lines of this major world conflict. They have become both activists on the global scene and messengers to their own communities. Their role as truth tellers has become all the more important since the anti-terror hysteria caused by the 11 September attacks on the US. The Christmas protests were, for the most part, not reported by the international media although journalists were well briefed in advance. Israel was once again shielded from adverse publicity while the victims of occupation were reviled as "terrorists" for resisting with violence and ignored when they protested peacefully.
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