Just when we thought we had exhausted ourselves on the election campaign, we are finding new energy for the equally important post-election tasks. An update of some recent actions:
Thursday: Women’s Day at Har Homa and Bethlehem
Why did Peace Now cancel its demonstration at Har Homa (Jabel Abu-Ghneim) last Thursday? The idea was a good one: to tell prospective building contractors that the construction of yet another Jewish settlement in occupied Palestine does not augur well for peace. But when the Palestinians declared that same day to be their own ‘Day of Anger’ to protest such settlements, Peace Now decided not to risk a re-run of the previous week’s violent face-off with the army at Ras al-Amud, another settlement site.
So a group of ten Bat Shalom women went to the meeting point, collected two Peace Now activists who also didn’t want to cancel, and together we drove just south of Jerusalem and up the dusty mountain road, where we unfurled our signs. Other intrepid climbers were the international media, but the building contractors seemed to care little as they drove past us in their Mercedes-Benz and BMWs. I’d like to think that they did ponder the meaning of our message – ‘Har Homa is an obstacle to peace’ – but I imagine that the glint of money to be made outshone the moral issue. At least the media carried a few words of our message, perhaps trickling down to their children.
But now ‘Day of Anger’ drew us onward, and when we heard by cell phone that Palestinians were demonstrating in Bethlehem, our group headed that way, promising each other to avoid riots, but to express our solidarity. We parked at the entrance to the city and walked past Rachel’s Tomb, a Jewish religious site that looks more like a fortress than a shrine. Indeed, the Israeli soldiers on guard there scowled as we walked past with our posters calling for peace, indicating, I presume, that they regard a pro-peace attitude as a lack of support for their work. More accurately, it was a lack of support for the politicians who put them there.
The large Palestinian demonstration had already broken up, but we gathered the last vestiges of media and spoke our piece publicly – two states for two nations, and settlements are an obstacle to peace – and went home. We made it into the local Jerusalem cable TV channel, Ha’aretz newspaper, and, most fortunately, Palestinian TV stations, which were glad to hear of support for the cause of peace on the Israeli side.
That same day, Gush Shalom demonstrated together with Palestinians near Nablus, but I don’t have details other than hearing Uri Avnery say that soldiers took aim at them to break up the demonstration, but then refrained from firing. As usual, Palestinians in other parts of the territories were not so lucky, and several were wounded and one killed.
Friday: Fueling the Occupation/ Polluting the Peace
The next day, the Christian Peacemakers Teams (CPT) in Hebron organized a protest against land confiscation in Hebron, this time for use as a gas station for settlers.
Bearing a banner reading, ‘This gas station is built on confiscated Palestinian land; it fuels occupation and pollutes peace’, the mixed Palestinian-Israeli-CPT group marched past Israeli soldiers and police guarding the station and held a short rally.
Speakers from CPT, the Palestinian Land Defense Committee, Gush Shalom, and Rabbis for Human Rights spoke, as well as two members of the family who own the land on which the station was built. Then an olive tree was planted as a symbol of peace and continuity.
Shortly thereafter, the police ordered the group to leave, which it did after singing, ‘We Shall Overcome’. No arrests were made, although soldiers took pictures of everybody before they left. For their scrapbooks.
Saturday: Four Mothers
On Saturday, the Movement of Four Mothers led a cavalcade of cars from the Lebanon border into Tel-Aviv, and then a large protest in a public square. Hundreds participated, and the coverage on the main TV news that evening was extensive. In my opinion, this movement is yet more evidence of the impact of citizens’ action in making peace. As a result of large scale unhappiness in Israel about the war in Lebanon – triggered by the activity of Four Mothers – both Barak and Netanyahu promised to have the Israeli army withdraw from Lebanon within a year, if elected. Now is the time for Barak to keep his promise, and the Four Mothers Movement is not letting up until it happens. Sadly, this morning’s news brought a report of the killing of yet another Israeli soldier in south Lebanon, and presumably more Lebanese suffering.
Monday: Pushing The Knesset
After taking Sunday off, on Monday we were enticed into the streets by the ceremonial swearing-in events of the new Knesset. Barak is preoccupied lately with pulling together disparate parties to form a government coalition, and many of us felt a need to remind him to look for partners to make peace. As the 120 new Members of Knesset emerged from the swearing-in, still in the glow of their own importance, we met them with our posters:
‘Remember: You were elected to make peace!’
‘Form a coalition that can make peace!’
‘Settlements are incompatible with peace!’
And my own creation and personal favorite: ‘Peace . . . or get off the pot.’
This action was initiated by Yesh Gvul, and enthusiastically attended by Bat Shalom, Gush Shalom, Committee Against House Demolitions, Hadash, and some members of Meretz (who made a point of criticizing their own party for objecting to Shas membership in the government coalition).
Tuesday: Peace Awards
Some of us took time out on Tuesday to honor 9 men and 2 women who were awarded the Gleitsman International Activist Award for their activities on behalf of peace in the Middle East. I’m proud to report that Galia Golan, one of Bat Shalom’s founders and an active member of the board, was so honored, both for her work in Bat Shalom and as a founder and activist of Peace Now. (I also can’t refrain from noting the skewed proportion of men and women, when it is so patently obvious that women have taken the lead in peace efforts in this part of the world.)
The prizes went to these individuals for activity regarding the Oslo Peace Accords:
Winners on the Israeli side – Galia Golan, M.K. Yossi Beilin, M.K. Uri Savir, and Yitzhak Frankenthal (for establishing a peace group of Israeli and Palestinian parents whose family members were killed in the conflict)
Winners on the Palestinian side – Political leaders Abu Mazen, Abu Ala, and Faisal Husseini; and human rights activist Bassem Eid.
Other winners – Oslo facilitators Terje Rod Larsen and Mona Juul, and U.S.-er Stanley Sheinbaum.
The ceremony was fittingly held in the American Colony Hotel, which had been home to so many PLO meetings over the years, when words less pacific were uttered. After hearing all the speeches on Tuesday, one simple sentence remained with me, spoken by Abu Ala, the speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council: ‘I’m optimistic that there will be peace,’ he said, and everyone nodded in agreement. And these are the people now in power.
We’ll be supporting – and prodding – you on your way.