Apartheid

Our first time traveling from Ramallah to Beit Ummar we took the long way. We avoided Jerusalem and drove through back roads and small villages avoiding checkpoints. There were a few Internationals in the car and our comrade and guide, a brother named Ash from the Jenin area. Since Ash is a Palestinian from the West Bank his identification does not allow him to enter Jerusalem or any of 48 -what we call Israel "proper." There are also Palestinians who live within 48 -considered arab-Israeli citizens- who can travel back and forth but are instructed not to do so "for their own safety." There may be another category but I am unable to keep track of all of these restrictions. All I know is that this situation is fucked. This land is divided and administered in an apartheid manner and it is painful to experience it as a visitor; I cannot imagine what it is like to live under its rule.

Dompas, or Pass Laws, were a dominant feature of Apartheid South Africa. How can the situation here can be mistaken for anything else? It is compulsory for all people to carry ID's and these ID's determine where one can travel, if one can work, or see relatives. The Gaza Strip has been cut off from the West Bank and practically the rest of the world for a chunk of time and the West Bank suffers from a methodical isolation. Gazans must travel to Egypt to take a flight elsewhere in the world; West Bankers must leave through Jordan. Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv is off limits, as is the beautiful beach on the Mediteranean Sea.

Some Palestinians used to work in Jerusalem but once the second intifada began, in Septemeber 2000, they were denied entry into 48 and lost their jobs. This in turn forced Israeli employers to hire new immigrant labor -another source of cheap labor. Besides the passes, Israel has also been building an Apartheid Wall around and through sections of the West Bank. This Annexation Wall seperates families much like the U.S.-Mexico border does in North America. This wall as well as the many other walls and fences being erected around Israeli settlements is grabbing more land from Palestinians and further pushing communities apart physically.

There are also checkpoints set up throughout the West Bank and floating checkpoints that appear and disappear as they see fit. Anything that can be employed to make life miserable is. Everytime Israel decides they need to further suffocate the Occupied Palestinian Territories, they just close the checkpoints and don't allow people through. Yesterday and today many Palestinians were killed in Gaza so checkpoints were absolutely horrendous to get through. Beyond daily misery, I believe the checkpoints are designed to squash organizing in a large scale making it terrifying to move from village to village.

Palestinians in a village called Bil'in have been battling the construction of the wall running illegally through their village decided to unsettle a settlement by squatting newly built houses on their land. Our crew of ISM'ers were asked to come from Beit Ummar to support this action. We had to jump in a taxi from our village to a checkpoint, where our passports were inspected by soldiers and border police who also inspected Palestinians who had passes to enter Jerusalem. Moments after our passports and passes were inspected, the checkpoint vanished, all the soldiers jumped into jeeps and moved on to create another floating checkpoint.

We then jumped on a service -like a dollar van- and made it to another checkpoint where we all had to dismount and stand on line while border police inspected passes, ID's, and passports while the army and special forces stared from afar. We then went on our way to Jerusalem where our service was stopped just a few meters away from Jaffa gate, the beautiful entry to the old city. Three young female border police agents were especially stoic and hateful as they demanded the ID's and passes of all Palestinians on board while disregarding the passports of the Internationals. I thought I was going to be sick as an older man was humiliated by the whole experience. I could only offer an Ana aasif, which came from a pained heart and fell on tired ears.

We made it into Jerusalem, where we switched to another service headed to Ramallah, passed a checkpoint where noone is checked on the way in, because who cares what goes into the Occupied Palestinian Territories and then from Ramallah on to Bil'in. After traveling both routes, I am not quite sure there is a short way.

A quick note on Bil'in, the Palestinians succesfully squatted the settlement houses and raised a Palestinian flag for a few hours before being evicted; our contribution was to keep Palestinians, who were not allowed in passed a gate, company as we chanted and protested the Israeli occupation, chanting in Arabic, Spanish, and English.

On our way back to Beit Ummar we heard about closures due to Israeli's fear of retaliation due to the murder of over 18 Palestinians in Gaza, so we chose the long way back passing only one check point. We instructed our driver to corroborate our story, that we were headed to Bethlehem. We arrived at the checkpoint late and the soldiers opened our service with assault rifles in hand and demanded our passports. They asked our driver, then us, where we were headed and I spoke for the group and explained Bethlehem, the Church of the Nativity, and a hostel for the night. They asked to see my tourist book and closely examined the pages on Gaza and the Golan Heights. I swear they were looking for invisible ink or finger grease marks. They asked if we were in Gaza, Golan, or Nazareth and I remembered the cara de pendejo tourist story they love. Gaza, Golan, No. Nazareth not yet. Tel Aviv, Haifa, and now Bethelehem. I love Haifa. Je Je Je... With a pat on my arm and passports returned we went on with our trip shaking from the close call and thanking Jesus.