Well it’s been a hectic week in the extreme south of Israel, with me moving out of the “anarchist kibbutz”, Samar, due to lack of appropriate housing and into a spacey 3-bedroom flat in the “eco-kibbutz”, Lotan, maybe 30 miles up the valley. Now settling in with an actual office room, bedroom etc. – oh I feel so mainstream! Anyway hopefully work (and blogging) will be more regularised now…
As if anyone needed proof that the 4th Geneva Convention isn’t worth the paper it’s written on. In Israel, he Supreme Court is about to sanction the government’s intention to turn off Gaza’s electricity, in what it calls a bid to create “civilian pressure” on Hamas (read: collective punishment). Meanwhile, here’s what’s happening in response to Israelis’ non-violent protest:
from Report of an AAtW activist, 8.12.07:
Tens of Palestinians, Israelis and Internationals gathered today at the junction near Um-Salamune (Bethlehem region), protesting against the building of the Apartheid wall there. Tens of Israeli soldiers, later joined by Israeli police and riot police, stopped the march (which didn’t block traffic) just before the entrance to Efrat, very close to the construction of the wall . Soldiers announced the area a “closed military zone”, and violently pushed demonstrators off the road.
Once the road was already cleared, and demonstrators surrounded on its side, the army declared it would stop all Palestinian traffic on the road as penalty – which it did. Army jeeps and soldiers stopped all Palestinian cars on the road for a fair half an hour, while Israeli cars drove by undisturbed.For the next hour soldiers kept redefining the invisible parameters of the “closed zone”, forcibly pushing demonstrators away.Several Palestinian photographers were arrested, but as far as we know were later released.”
Do you understand what is happening here? By exacting collective punishment on the Palestinians, the Israeli soldiers and policemen are enforcing a logic that MAKES protest self-defeating. They are using their armed might to declare: we will frustrate your intentions to help these people. This is the cruelty that Jews associate with Pharoh.
