Jessica Riva is a Jewish-American woman from New York. Last summer she traveled to Israel with the Birthright Israel program, which offers free trips that promote the country to young American Jews. Jessica then worked in the palestinian village of Al-Zawiya with the International Solidarity Movement, a network of non-violent activists in the Occupied Palestinian Territories who work to provide support to Palestinians living under the Israeli occupation.
These are some thoughts on her trip. Jessica is also active in the Palestine Solidarity Movement in the United States.
‘Welcome home,’ they said to us American Jews when we arrived into Tel Aviv. We sang about brotherhood and happiness and then boarded a bus. Two security guards with guns followed. You get used to having guns around in Israel. On Ben-Yehuda street in Jerusalem settlers in plain clothes walk with uzis around their shoulders. In the old city, soldiers with guns stand at the entrance to Damascus Gate, watching, waiting, asking the occasional brown man for his ID. This is just to complement the hundreds of cameras that are placed at every corner, every twist, every turn in the old city. This is a war zone.
Israelis go to malls, go to dance clubs, hang out at the beach. But they need metal detectors and guards and locks everywhere. Israelis need psychological help. They suffer from post-traumatic disorders. Collective memory-paranoia disorders.
Palestinians also need psychological help. Living under the occupation is much more than assassinations and attacks. It is daily humiliation. It is having your land taken away by an 8 meter high concrete wall and not being able to do anything to stop it. It is having your house demolished because it is in the path of a wall, a road or the desired spot of an Israeli military post. It is being held up at a checkpoint because an 18 year old Israeli is in a bad mood. It is having a kuffiyeh tied around your eyes and being left on the side of the road while the soldiers decide whether you are truly a terrorist or not. It is watching this happen to your parents, your cousins, your sisters and brothers. It is being shot at with tear gas, rubber bullets in your village. It is seeing the red rooftops of the settlements everywhere, knowing that the colonizers live protected by armed guards on your land. day, 7 days a week, an infrastructure of violence, control and humiliation.
I am told this is my home by Israelis—until they find out why I’m here. Then they tell me to go the fuck home. That I’m not really Jewish. Kuti told me that no one could take being Jewish away from me- but what is being Jewish, if it’s not a community? When you are hated as a traitor.
It is difficult to speak to people who refuse to see the Palestinians as people. One soldier told me that Palestinians are animals and so human rights do not apply. I want to say that this view is not widespread, but in the army—you are still a child and they give you a gun and say, ‘here is your enemy.’ And every Palestinian that you see is the one that blew up a friend of yours in a café on the beach in Tel Aviv.
And they can’t understand why they do it. Can’t understand that anger. ‘They are uncivilized.’ ‘They are barbaric.’ ‘IF ONLY they were educated.’ ‘IF ONLY they were civilized, like we are.’ “Sue us�? one Israeli woman said regarding the theft of Palestinian lands. “They have�? said a friend of mine.
“It didn’t work…�?
So the soldier continues with his gun in hand and he follows orders. For his people, for his security. Until he can see that Palestinians are people too and he joins the few who refuse.
But still so many continue to fight. I’ve never seen so many flags in my life.
A Palestinian-American friend of mine visits the village where his grandparents lived. There is now a forest there. You can still see the traces of a village - stones from the bases of houses, wells. Israeli families picnic under the shade of the trees. My friend is so sick. He will never forget. No matter how many more are killed, tear-gassed, transferred. So you see, I don’t think a fence can help him. I don’t think a fence can help me, or help you.
I do not want anyone else to tell me that this conflict is complicated. I am sick of hearing Israelis tell me that the situation is complicated when they quickly reach the mental block that prevents them from hearing me talk about the Palestinians. ‘They hate us. They want to throw us into the sea! They blew up my cousin!’ ‘Who is they?’ and ‘Why do they hate us?’ I ask.
I visit Yad Vashem, the Holocaust museum in Jerusalem. I see the way that Jews were targeted because of their religion – whether they wanted to be Jewish or not.
Qalqilya is surrounded on all sides by the wall. A house in Mas-ha is completely surrounded by fence. There is a door that leads to the village. It is electronically monitored. The three year old boy who lives there tries to kill a bird that the family keeps in a cage.
ID cards come in colors and families hang pictures of the mosque in Jerusalem that they are not allowed to visit. The sad yellow star is now on large army trucks that patrol and patrol and patrol. The little guy who got beat up went to the gym and worked out, Kuti told me. Now he is the bully. Proud to be strong, for once. But always still the victim in his head. Schizophrenic soldier. Schizophrenic Israel.
The three year old boy who lives there tries to kill a bird that the family keeps in a cage.
ID cards come in colors and families hang pictures of the mosque in Jerusalem that they are not allowed to visit. The sad yellow star is now on large army trucks that patrol and patrol and patrol. The little guy who got beat up went to the gym and worked out, Kuti told me. Now he is the bully. Proud to be strong, for once. But always still the victim in his head. Schizophrenic soldier. Schizophrenic Israel.
So I don’t go the fuck home, at least for now. There is still more to see and still more to say. As I run in retreat down a mountain, with tear gas in my mouth and my eyes- I try not to hate the soldiers who are little boys, scared, feel attacked while they stand beside the biggest settlement in Israel with large guns and many weapons, using them in a ‘liberal’ kind of way.
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