Quo vadis Israel?
The new Intifada of the Palestinians

Felicia Langer

The blockade of the occupied areas and its effects

In the many years of occupation prior to the Oslo agreement I witnessed all sorts of violations of human rights with regard to Palestinians: torture, deportation, collective punishment, long and continuous confinement, administrative arrest without prior court hearing, expropriation, building of settlements on stolen Palestinian land, intentional killing, ill-treatment, humiliation. All those who suffered from such treatment have names and have faces, they will live on in my books and my memory.

I was convinced that we had exhausted the whole range of suppression. I was mistaken. The attempt to oppress this new Intifada proved to me how ingenious we are: we have subjected over a million people to a state of siege, created a large common prison, which is divided into smaller prisons and we continue with this because the world keeps quiet about it.

B'Tselem released a report in January 2001 entitled "Civilians under Siege". The following was stated:

"Since the beginning of the earliest uprising, since 29 September 2000 Israel has imposed a whole lot of general restrictions on the freedom of movement of the Palestinian population on the West Bank and Gaza Strip. These restrictions violate at their worst the right to work and the right to earn a living; they violate the right to adequate medical care, the right to education and the right to a family life. The Israeli restrictions on the freedom of movement have put a stop to all aspects of everyday life for about three million people. These politics are mainly responsible for the terrible distress and despair in the occupied areas - politics that have made the life of the inhabitants unbearable. The type and timing of Israel's restrictions on the freedom of movement contradicts the claim that they are solely dictated by safety considerations. Israel generally seals off areas, imposes blockades and a state of siege on over a million people and not on single individuals who could present a threat to safety. In many cases Israel imposes restrictions in "reply" to Palestinian attacks on Israeli civilians or soldiers, where there is no connection between the type of restrictions imposed and their effectiveness in preventing similar attacks in the future. The decision to ease off restrictions is usually understood as a "gesture" within the context of political developments, mostly without connection with the safety threat, which, as stated before is used to justify the restrictions."

Dr. Mustafa Bargouti reported on 13 March 2000 that the West Bank was divided into 60 isolated sections. This is the worst that the economic situation has been in 34 years of occupation. Not only are the Palestinians forbidden now to travel to Israel - access roads between cities and villages are blocked. And poverty is ever increasing.

"'The next stage of impoverishment will appear in the social sector', states Joseph Saba, World Bank Director in the Palestinian areas. So it may be expected that illiteracy will increase especially with women, as young girls are no longer sent to school, but stay at home to help." (tageszeitung, 13 February 2001).

Jörg Bremer also reported in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on 27 March 2001 on the losses in the Gaza Strip:

"Arabs in the Gaza Strip are not only losing their lemon groves and date palms along the border. Not only are the old eucalyptus trees falling. It was not only planned to create an undisturbed battlefield for "settler safety" along this road and at the large crossings. One morning the businessman Bajan Samna at Deir el-Balah, like every morning, wanted to travel to his tin can factory but in the night it had been transported away. Two sheds of a total of 3 000 square metres with two roller machines and 300 tonnes of steel in rolls were gone. He had lost a half a million Marks, he explained, 50% was on credit."

From all this it can be seen that Israel is conducting a brutal economic war against a civilian population which has suffered for decades under Israeli occupation and exploitation. From time to time we hear that Israel has relaxed the blockades but the Palestinians in the area say that they are only "cosmetic corrections" and that in principle everything is the same as before. As mentioned above, the blockades can have a deadly effect. For the ten-year-old Ella from El Sawiya in the region of Nablus it was deadly. Her case is just one of dozens of such cases. The child had stomach pains and her father tried in vain to take her to Nablus. On 7 January 2001 Gideon Levy described Ella's last journey in Ha'aretz:

"It took place in the early days of the blockade before it was as serious as it is today: In those days there were still road blocks, manned by soldiers who one could at least beg to allow the sick girl to pass through. According to the father's statement, they were stopped by soldiers and in spite of their request were sent back. Here it must be remembered that they just wanted to go to Neblus and not to Israel. They tried another route and were stopped by another lot of soldiers. They had to return home again. A doctor from a nearby village ordered that Ella should be transported as quickly as possible to a hospital. Next morning they tried it again and once again soldiers prevented them. A couple of hours later Ella died. Dr Riad el-Halu pronounced the cause of death to be a burst appendix."

The soldiers were only following the orders of their superior. This reminds me very much of events in our history. Even if we say that it is better not to make comparisons, this can no longer help Ella. The story of Amina Balout who does not live far from Ramallah has a "happy ending" because no one died. Perhaps she will inspire someone one day to film her. Because in this story there is a lot of action and moreover it reveals a lot of information because it shows how human beings can forget their humanity. I will let Amina say it in her own words.

"My name is Amina Balout. I live in the village Rantis north of Bir Zeit.

One day, two weeks ago, I experienced bad birth pains. I knew that it would take a long time to get to the hospital in Ramallah, therefore I immediately told my husband. Normally this is a trip of about 40 minutes. But these are not normal times. About three months ago they set up a lot of roadblocks between Rantis and Bir Zeit. The only access to the town is now totally closed off. From the town there is only a rough road through fields, which in this season is full of mud.

My husband, mother and sister drove with me in the taxi. We had not gone far when an Israeli army jeep and another secret service jeep stopped our taxi and would not let us travel further. We argued with them and insisted that they let us through.

After about 30 minutes the contractions were so strong that it would have been totally impossible for us to return to Rantis. Finally the soldiers let us through. We drove further along the road until we came to the next roadblock near the Jewish settlement of Halamish. The soldiers pointed guns at our taxi and ordered us to stop. We shouted that there was a woman who was about to give birth but the soldiers said they first had to get permission from the commanding officer before they could let us through.

As he went away I felt the baby start to come out. I shouted: 'The baby is coming, the baby is coming.' Before the soldier came back I had already given birth to the baby in the taxi. My mother and sister wrapped it in a blanket and gave it to me so that I could keep it warm against my body.

Finally an officer came and let us through when he saw the baby.

One of the soldiers came to the car and opened the door. When he saw me he began to laugh. They ordered us to get out the car. My mother got very angry and closed the door again. They tried to open the door but my mother screamed and screamed that they should let us through. They insisted that we must all get out the taxi. What could we do? We had to get out.

I held the baby, which was still attached to me by the umbilical cord. Then I collapsed and fell to the floor. I was just too weak.

My husband told me later that the soldiers stood there and started to laugh again. Finally a soldier came who shouted at them to stop and let us pass through. No-one noticed that I had lost a slipper. It was left on the ground in front of the roadblock.

At about 8h30 we reached the hospital in Ramallah. We had left Rantis at about five. We named the baby Sabreen, a name derived from the word 'patience'."

Sabreen's family lives in Rantis. On 23 March 2001 hundreds of activists of the peace movement from all parts of Israel met at the trenches and walls built by the Israelis on the single road that leads to the Palestinian towns in order to take action. "They began to bring the wall down with axes and spades and to cover up the trenches with stones and sand, in order to break down this blockade against this town of 3 000 inhabitants. This first action was initiated by four freedom movements - of the freedom block Gusch Schalom, Rabbis for Human Rights, Coalition of Women's Peace movements and the Committee against Destruction of Houses. Fourteen more freedom groups of every type called for involvement in this action. Activists from the Hebron-based Christian Peace Teams, which has amongst its members Americans and Germans, also took part."

Israeli police and border control officials confiscated the spades and other equipment that they had brought with them, however the activists just continued to dig with their bare hands. On the same evening the army bulldozers just simply opened up the trenches again and built the wall again. However the peace activists have promised to come again and not only to Rantis because, as they say, "the blockades and ghettos that are against people must be done away with".

They will not manage on their own, they are but few; therefore we are all obliged to help, everywhere.

Felicia Langer - Summarised version of the chapter "Blockade of the occupied areas and its effects" from "Quo vadis Israel? The new Intifada of the Palestinians." © Copyright Lamuv Verlag GmbH, Göttingen 2001; All rights reserved.
Translated from German by Heather Batchelor

Bibliography
"With My Own Eyes" (1975), "Those Are my Brothers", "Where Hate Knows No Boundaries", "Bridge of Dreams", "The Epoch of Stones" and "Rage and Hope", "Let Us Live Like People". "Appearance and Truth in Palestine", (1999), "Miecius Report. Youth between the Ghetto and Theresienstadt", (1999).

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