An Account of Life on the West Bank
Lamia Khatib is a 27 year old Palestinian mother of of four. Lamia's husband Mohammad is secretary of the village council and a member of the Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements. They live in the West Bank village of Bil'in, which has been under Israeli military occupation for the last 42 years.
On August 3, my husband Mohammed Khatib, and my little brother Abdullah, were taken from their beds in our West Bank village of Bil'in at 3 AM by the Israeli military. My husband is a member of the Bil'in Popular Committee, which has been leading our village's nonviolent campaign against Israel's construction of a Wall and a settlement on our land. For nearly five years, every Friday we have been joined by supporters from Israel and around the world as we attempt to march to our land on the other side of the Wall. According to the terms of the Fourth Geneva Convention, the settlement amounts to a war crime, and in 2004 the International Court of Justice ruled the Wall illegal.
In addition to years of peaceful protests, for the last four years our village has held an annual international conference on nonviolent resistance. Bil'in's struggle has become an emblematic example for Palestinians and worldwide. Last December, the Bil'in Popular Committee was awarded the 2008 Human Rights Medal by the International League of Human Rights in Germany.
Despite this, the construction of the Wall and settlements continued, and we are treated as criminals in our quest for justice. On top of tens of arrests, hundreds of protesters from Bil'in have been injured and one has been killed by the Israeli military.
Just a few days before he was arrested, Mohammed wrote this account of our life in Bil'in:
--
I woke up this morning to find my three year-old son, Khaled, beating me and screaming wildly. Of course I was shocked by this, so I started to comfort him and ask what was the matter... through the sobs and tears, I managed to make out a few words:
"Why are you not a good Dad... you left me to the soldiers... at the Wall... and they shot me in the leg!"
"What happened to your leg, Khaled?"
"It's better now..."
He was describing a nightmare.
My wife, Lamia, once asked me: "Why can't we live like other people?" It was a very difficult question for me to answer. All the Palestinians of my generation were born under military occupation, so this is the only life we know.
As I write these words, it's almost midnight and we are sitting on the roof of my house, on the look-out for the Israeli army. It's been two months since the most recent wave of night raids began, with the army now employing a new strategy of arresting every villager who attends the demonstrations, in an attempt to crush our campaign of nonviolent resistance. Up until now eleven people have been arrested, but the list of those wanted is much, much longer. So in Bi'lin, no one goes to sleep before four or five in the morning. We stay awake all night, observing the movements of the Israeli military, fearing that we may be the next person to be kidnapped and thrown in jail. Our nights have become our days, and our days have become our nights. For some it is more difficult than others because of work commitments, but we have no choice.
But it's not only the adults who stay awake. Our children can't sleep either, afraid that the army will burst into his or her room in the middle of the night. They don't knock on the door during the night raids. So imagine the horror for a child to wake up to find a stranger with a painted face pointing his gun in their face. We don't stay up so much to avoid arrest, but to avoid facing this terrible moment.
Even with all this, I know that I have a good quality of life compared to other Palestinians. I'm lucky enough to have avoided, up till now, both jail and the loss of a family member. Two out of three Palestinians you meet will have suffered one or the other, if not both.
--
Yesterday, I saw Mohammed and Abdullah in the Israeli military court. My brother had bruises all over from the beatings he received from the soldiers. My husband is being accused of "incitement to damage the security of the area." It is obvious that the Israeli authorities will do all that they can to prevent Palestinians and Israelis from working together towards a just peace. Mohammed may no longer be one of the "lucky" ones, but I know that he, Abdullah and I, and everyone in Bil'in, will continue our struggle for justice.
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Oh please.
For all the commentators complaining that Palestinians throw stones and therefore deserve everything coming to them, imagine if Israeli troops treated Orthodox Jews the same way they treat Palestinians. Last month Orthodox Jews rioted, burned refuse, threw stones, bricks, dirty diapers at police in Jerusalem.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gfuV9nI6NEokQV-vs9PGzL9UvDqA
Were the rabbis rounded up in the middle of the night for inciting violence?
Actually, many were arrested. http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1104429.html 28 were arrested a few weeks ago, 14 were arrested last week.
Ok, I'll bite.
Were any of the protests by Orthodox Jews dispersed with tear gas or live rounds of ammunition, as has happened in Bilin regularly? Were any of the Orthodod Jewish protestors shot and killed, as Bassam Abu Rahme was?
He was the 18th person killed protesting the wall. You can see pictures and testimony and video here:
http://www.bilin-village.org/english/articles/testimonies/Basem-Abu-Rahme-killed-in-Bilin-weekly-protest
Of those Orthodox Jews arrested, the Haaretz article does not mention how many were held in administrative detention, which allows indefinite detention without charges, for months or years on end (administration detention can be renewed indefinitely by the Israeli army without any evidence against the accused).
No, they were arrested during the daytime because the chance of the Rabbis blowing themselves up or shooting at the police is slim to none.
You know, Jewish terror groups like Ezel and Lehi introduced Palestine to mass, indiscriminate bombings and shooting and hanging police officers. They were doing it in the 30s, when Palestinians were still organizing mass strikes and other "civil rights" tactics." Protesters like the ones in Bil'in have explicitly renounced violent tactics. Yet clearly they must be treated like terrorists because they are Arab, by your logic.
Because the Mossad never lies. Because the Israeli army is infallible and most pure army in the world. Look up the Kav 300 affair.
With Rahm in power, things are only going to get worse for you.
Would you like to elaborate?
Are you suggesting what I think you are suggesting?
As the blogger is only 27 years old, I suggest a conversation with her parents about how great life was under Jordanian rule when it illegally held the West Bank?? And maybe about why Jordan kicked out most of the Palestinians in the infamous BLACK SEPTEMBER operation???
On June 12, 2009, I made my fourth trip to Bil'in and got gassed, but on my first trip on January 5, 2006, I learned that in Billin, the Green Line was five miles from the electronic fence that denies the indigenous people access to their land and resources, but illegal settlers/colonizers have built an upscale apartment for Jews only upon legally owned Palestinian land.
The indigenous people of Bil'in fought for justice through Israeli Municipal Court and in 2006, the court agreed the building of the settlement was illegal and ordered construction to cease, but while I was there, over a half dozen USA made Caterpillar tractors were moving earth to build a paved road for the Jewish colonists [many from the USA] will be allowed to travel upon.
The UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights is binding on "all countries of the world" and EQUAL human rights are declared as UNDERSTOOD at the outset of the document as "inalienable" and therefore can not be denied by any government.
The nightly invasions of the villages of Bil'in by the Israeli army are a violation of international law and Israel as the occupying power is legally, morally and ethically responsible for the welfare and safety of all civilians living under its rule.
"Words must mean something."-Pres. Obama
The security wall is symbolic of the I/P conflict. Accusations that the wall is apartheid reveal only the prejudices and bad faith of the accussers. The wall unfortunately was necessitated by the suicide bombings. Israelis don't like living behind a wall either. But in locating the wall, Israel overreached in various locations, cutting off Palestinian land and fields to protect tangential or low-risk security interests. The protests against the wall qua wall are disingenuous and merely propoganda; protesting against the overreaching would attract much more support from the West and the Jewish community if it truly was non-violent. Once again, nobody is right cause everybody's wrong. And that's why this continues to be a tragedy.
Hi, my name is history and I'd like you to meet my friend research. We'd love for you to get to know us?
And this is responsive to my post how?
hmm.. ghettos are "good" when you can force other people to live in them,
and they are "good" when you use them to keep the riff-raff out (ie. gated communities)...
....but if I'm not mistaken, their are ENTIRE SHIPLOADS of literature & written sources out there, written over the past dozen+ centuries, COMPLAINING about just how awful "ghettos" were, if YOUR kin happened to have been forced to live in them.
This is right out of the bash-Israel talking points which seek to portray Israel as Nazi-like. Was West Berlin a ghetto because East Berlin build a wall. Your propoganda is an Orwellian 1984 script.
How does anyone write an article about "life under the Israeli Wall" without so much as a mention of why the wall was built in the first place? From reading this, one would believe Israel just built the wall and spent $500 million dollars to make life rough on the Palestinians. Maybe had this woman joined the "popular committee against suicide terror, hate and incitement" the vicious genocidal campaign of sending brainwashed teens into Jerusalem and Tel Aviv would have never happened. Maybe then thousands of innocent women and children would not have been blown to bits in restaurants, on buses, in synagogues, and in discos. Sure wish the International Court of Justice had ruled suicide terrorism as being illegal. Maybe if the Palestinians had not organized and supported this genocide the wall would have never been built.
Query:
Are you trying to justify an apartheid policy?
Relevant Quote:
"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both."
Benjamin Franklin
Observation:
It's twice as heinous if you cause someone /else/ to lose their liberty so that /you/ can have security.
Query: is using the word "apartheid" to describe the act of defending your citizens against suicide terrorists a way of obfuscating the topic and turn this into some sort of racial agenda?
Relevant Quote: people will give up a little liberty to gain a LOT of security, especially when the lives of their families are being threatened by hate filled racist terrorists.
Observation: When people organize and support heinous crimes against children, they may lose their "liberty" as a result
Arrested from bed at 3:00 in the morning..............how cowardly. What a nightmare to exist at the whim of a controlling bully who veils oppression as justice.
Can you imagine if the situation was reversed and the perpetrators were forced to endure a life with no hope, with daily abuse, belittlement , harassment, brutal oppression and the constant threat of death from those who think they are entitled and superior?
No imagination necessary, the irony is glaringly apparent-- lessons don't come easily to those who only want for themselves and peace will never come to those who brutally occupy.
Keep up the non violent fight, Lamia, the more you write and document the facts, the more awake people will become ............. Thank you..........
Arrests are done late at night to prevent the Palestinians from escalating the situation.
Some Palestinians actually commit crimes, you know.
Observation:
So do some Israelis. The only difference is Israelis don't get punished, even when there is evidence.
Dear Lamia,
Your living situation would drive anybody nuts. That's for sure.
So, we can only imagine what life behind an ugly, monstrous wall on one side and on the other, your home and land and trees destroyed, with the space taken up by settlements filled with those to whom you are a non person, some one not their equal.
(If they considered you their equal, this would not be happening, yes??)
G-d alone knows what the Israeli/the Jewish ruling class think they're achieving with all this indifference, with all this callous, ruthless behaviour and He is not talking much, now is He...??
:)
But most decent, thoughtful people have come to the conclusion, that such treatment is unacceptable and shameful. A moral stain on Israel and a mockery of all western democracy.
Continue to stay calm, stay strong. Pay no attention to any nasty comments or other disrespect. Make sure all your protests are non violent. Always. Follow Mr.Gandhi and Mr.King's peaceful methods of bringing a good future for all children of your community.
Keep reminding the world: that you are entitled to the same rights and freedoms and prosperity as the rest of us and that your efforts to take good and proper care of yourselves, your lives and futures, should not be hampered in any way, by any one, any more.
So sorry Israel is so authoritarian, making your lives so difficult on a daily basis.
Take care.
Hello Funny World, what do you think life was like in Israel when during the Oslo peace negotiations brainwashed teenage suicide terrorists blew up entire families on buses, in restaurants, and in synogogues. Did you ever think to question why the wall was built in the first place. Most "decent, thoughtful people" know that the only reason there has not been more collective mass murder perpetrated on innocents in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem is that the barrier is there. It is not illegal for Israel to defend its citizens.
People seem to forget that nearly every Israeli has had a family member killed or maimed by Palestinian terrorism.
Observation:
I think the Israelis living in Tel Aviv during the suicide attacks had it a world of a difference easier than /anyone/ living in Gaza under Israeli seige and bombardment.
I lived in Israel then. My family is Israeli.
Believe me, everyday life went on as normal. There was nowhere near the massive disruption and trauma as has been caused in the Occupied Territories by the Israeli occupation. Lets not forget that the occupation began 40 years before the first suicide bombers.
Did you have these same feelings when sucide bombers were murdering hundreds of innocent men, women and children in cafes, shopping malls, busses, markets and temples?
Or is this angst only for the Palistinians?
Observation:
Palestinians are killed at least at a rate of twelve times the rate Israelis are ever killed. It is a matter of triage.
Did Mrs. Khatib ever explore the idea that her husband and brother may have been involved in less-than-savory behavior? Or has she blindly accused Israel of kidnapping her family members without reason?
Honestly, the IDF doesn't arrest anyone without a good reason. You actually have to do something to get Shabak's attention. Funny article about this below:
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1249418564611&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Mrs. Khatib's family members may not have been planning suicide attacks or anything along those lines, but they were probably hanging out with the wrong crowd, so to speak, which got the IDF's attention. This is enough to get you hauled in anywhere in the world. Also, if Mr. Khatib was in charge of the Bil'in protests he shares a certain amount of responsibility for when the protesters turn on the police, as he is the organizer. It's pretty obvious from the available videos that the protesters have been baiting the IDF and that the protest leaders are the ones whipping the crowd into a frenzy.
Anyways, although I'm doubtful, I hope this arrest was a mistake, that Mr. Khatib is innocent, and that the family can return to their lives as soon as possible.
The IDF, honestly, does arrest many people without good reason. Your post is nothing more than propaganda. You should visit the West Bank some time and check it out.
I just got back from the West Bank, have you ever been there?
The IDF is the backbone of this fascist state and no amount of whitewashing them as prevailers of good will cover up their crimes and international law violations. And linking to the right winged JPost is no good either.
I am truly very sorry Khatib, please understand there are Americans who have solidarity with the Palestinians and are working fervently to end this heinous occupation.
Call all the names you like, you know as well as I do that Israel is no "fascist" state. I just returned from six weeks in both Israel and the West Bank and I didn't see anything that resembled fascism from either the Palestinians or Israelis.
What I did see was division, promoted by both sides. I didn't personally meet a single Israeli Jew that I would call racist, the majority just wanted "the world and the Arabs to leave us alone". Most of them had no interest in politics.
There were multiple instances where I would talk with a Palestinian and halfway through the conversation they would stop and ask: "you are Jew?". Not once was I asked by an Israeli Jew what religion I followed.
Anyways, the point is, you've obviously never been there, or you're content in contributing to the smear campaign against the only Jewish state in existence.
do you really believe that any sane person will believe any story coming out from JPost, Israe's equivalent of NyPost i.e. tabloid reporting at finest....
Every story in the Jerusalem Post is a lie, right. That's pretty convenient for your argument.
How can you cast aspersions on this fine newspaper? After all, Wolf Blitzer, was one of their writers, before joining AIPAC. We know that anything about the MIddle East discussed in 'The Situation Room' is as unbiased as anything coming from 'The No Spin Zone'.
Isn't using "honestly" and "IDF" in the same sentence an oxymoron?
Simply amazing how your account of things via your keyboard is to stand as credible... or your references to JPost... and we're to forget Lamia's incredible account of what is happening on the ground in her village.
We're not fools here... many of us have actually bothered to study the history of the Israeli Palestinian issue and are well aware of the decades of documented abuse by the Israeli armed forces.
Ironic that so many on here would go on and on about Palestinian terrorism and then refer to the honesty or authenticity of the IDF, itself the product of terrorist organizations such as the Palmach and Hagganah.
Why does it amaze you that someone might honestly share their experiences with people? Do you really think it impossible that my experiences in Israel have been different than the tabloid hyperbole you've been reading in Electronic Intifada?
Just because I disagree with you doesn't mean I'm lying, and I've definitely studied the conflict just as well as you have. I'm not calling you a fool. I know about all the bad things Israel's been part of -- Deir Yassin, Sabra & Shatilla, etc. You'll never catch me defending the crazy West Bank settlers or the disparity in funding between Jewish and Arab public schools.
But unlike you, I'm actually able to put these negative events/traits in perspective, I'm actually able to see the good in Israel, and thus I reach another conclusion.
Amazing that a Palestinian viewpoint is allowed here. This is a notable exception to corporate media's unwritten rule that the reality of Palestinian life under the occupation is never to be shown.
The Huffington Post generally chooses the Palestinian narrative over the Israeli one, your claim is bogus.
Pro-Israel: Foxman, Dershowitz, Davis, Levi-Strauss, Cooper, Zuckerman.
How many pro-Palestinian blog have appeared here?
You need to get out more.
If you have seen the protests, they are not what can be described as "non-violent". As for the question; "Why can't we live like other people", that's because you have dedicated your society to destroying Israel. You tried to wipe out Israel in 1948 and 1967. You were offered control of the west bank in 1948 and then again in 2000. Each time you reacted with violence saying that killing Israelis was more important than building Palestine. The fence was erected to keep out suicide bombers. I was in the west bank in the 70's, there was no fence. It was erected as a response to Palestinian suicide bombers. No bombers, no fence. It works pretty well too, much to Palestinian frustration.
Finally, if you don't like life in the West Bank why don't you move? One out of 10 people in my country, the US, was born elsewhere, as was one out of 12 in England. People do move to improve their lives.
There is of course a better way which after 60 years the Palestinians are finally trying. They are starting to police their mad bombers and in response Israel is reducing its footprint on the West bank. Hopefully the Palestinians can start building a civil society dedicated to the betterment of their people. It could work, their economy grew by 7% last year. They just have to give up their dream of destroying Israel.
You've said it best! You've spoken truth to blogger power, and you are to be applauded.
THANK YOU
If you think that Palestinians started this violence you have no clear idea of the history of the conflict. Non-violent action by Palestinians is treated with indifference and violence - witness the order from Rabin to break the hands and legs of the non-violent protesters in the first Intifada. If Israel would stop stealing West Bank land and, instead return to the 1967 borders, the peace they supposedly seek would be at hand. Why do you expect the oppressed to behave like dogs and lick your boots? Palestinians have too much pride to be vanquished in this way, so the conflict continues.
actually the first political/ethnic violence in the Land of Israel was the 1920 riots in Jerusalem against Jews by Arabs egged on by Al-Husseini. They kept doing this, Jews formed self-defense groups, it continued, when the UN partitioned and Israel declared its independence, the Palestinian Arabs and its patrons all launched war, which like all wars produces refugee issues. Also, who is "vanquishing" the "palestinian people?" The occupation is almost all gone, they've been offered a state, and they rejected
It's true that the protesters bring sling-shots.
Rather like that bible story David and Goliath don't you think?
Throwing a stone is wrong, but entering a village as a member of an occupation force with machine-guns and tear-gas canisters is worse. We all need to get a little perspective on this "violence" you speak of.
"Finally, if you don't like life in the West Bank why don't you move?"
why don' you throw the same deal to the radica.l settlers who are clogging the west bank and win some favor from US....
I think we all know that it really isn't that easy to up and leave the West Bank. The real question is, "Why don't you actively try to improve the situation there, rather than concentrate on 'resistance'?"
This was a very touching piece by Lamia.
Lamia: We (the world) are behind you... we're sorry that our (American) tax dollars are helping to put good men like Mohammed and other Palestinian citizens into prison.
It's outrageous that Israel continues its assault on the town of Bil'in, treating individuals with nothing but their voices, signs, and comradery as though they are carrying AKs and RPGs.
Where is Obama on this after his statements supporting non-violent means of resisting the occupation? Oh right... he's busy spending our money to help Israel's military apparatus continue to imprison and murder innocent Palestinian civilians.
The world needs to turn its attention to the Palestinians... to towns like Bil'in and Ni'lin... These people are doing nothing more than marching on their own land. Everyone wants to talk about the Martin Luther King Jr's of the world and the Gandhi's of the world, but when they're here with us, we ignore them and don't support them at all. Palestinians have deep roots in non-violent resistance, but it's evident that the global support that resistance receives does not nearly run as deep.
Thank you to Huffington Post for allowing us to hear Lamia's voice.
I think you need to see a video of one of these "peaceful protests" at Bil'in before you start defending them as "doing nothing more than marching on their own land".
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=6811378
About halfway through the video, the protesters start using slingshots and throwing rocks at the IDF, which the protesters admit to in their video. What can they possibly expect? Why did they bring slingshots to a protest?
Hardly a "peaceful protest"...
do you see irony in your posts? slingshots vs tanks...David Vs Goliath....
Interesting video. But I find the notion of stones being thrown rather less intimidating than the machine-guns and tear-gas canisters.
Perhaps you just need to be honest with yourself - if an occupation force was building a wall to separate you from your livelihood and brought armed soldiers into your neighbourhood, you would probably throw a rock too.
And if you knew that your protest would be attended by soldiers, you would prepare yourself by bringing a sling-shot to throw it.
I think it's rather like David and Goliath - and in that story, I know who I sympathize with.
Mohammed Khatib, Lamia's husband is going on trial tomorrow. The army prosecutors trying to convict him and are hoping that the world does not care about yet another Arab in jail for no reason. Please keep up to date on the progress of the trial by going to bilin-village.org, there is a chance that shame will deter them in this case.
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