Today I was sent a blind email with a letter by a courageous person that participated on one of the regular NGO Machom Watch “women against occupation and human rights”, trips to the West Bank. This letter apparently was addressed to the other participants on the trip that reveals his concerns for fairness, honesty and truthfulness that was sorely lacking by the leader of the Machsom Watch tour. I will keep my personal views in check in order to allow this letter to express it all.
Read this letter and you decide:
Friends!
At the outset I wish to confess that I have gone against accepted convention and have blind-copied all the participants with whom I shared the coach tour on Monday 9th. In fact, I am essentially addressing you, the visitors to my country, and I wish to apologize up front for the intrusion into your privacy but sincerely hope that you will read on to get a different slant to that which was presented to you. At the same time I would hope that the organization sponsoring our tour will take note.
I am an Israeli. I decided that I needed to see with my own eyes what is a difficult and delicate situation, one that has many different hues. I was, and am, deeply disturbed by reports of the ill-treatment of Arabs in the areas under Israeli control on the West Bank. I condemn these actions in the strongest possible terms and will endeavour to assist those organisations committed to making a difference in order to improve those adverse conditions that exist.
I am alarmed, however, that you, having shared the experience of Monday last, will now go back home with a seriously slanted impression of what is commonly referred to here as the ‘matzav’ – the situation. Allow me to expand in order to show that we were provided with the overwhelming viewpoint of one side only in this equation – that of the Left, if not ultra-Left. This is my attempt at a balance.
Only one Israeli newspaper was deemed deserving of being a source for Daniella’s quotations – Haaretz. This from their website: –
Haaretz describes itself as broadly liberal on domestic issues and international affairs. Others describe it alternatively as liberal, centre-left, left-wing or even hard left.
Only one Israeli journalist was deemed deserving of being a source for Daniella’s quotations – Amira Hass. Again, from Haaretz,
Amira Hass is the Haaretz correspondent for the Occupied Territories. She has lived in the West Bank city of Ramallah since 1997. (Daniella – you denied this last reference in our exchange!)
Ramallah-resident Amira Hass in generally considered to be on the EXTREME-Left.
From their own website – “Machsomwatch is a movement of Israeli women, peace activists from all sectors of Israeli society”
Daniella responded to my question as to how many women would consider themselves either centre or centre-right, her immediate response was ‘None’.
In my opinion, no adequate explanation was provided for the existence of the separation barrier although this single issue was the major highlight of the day. In fact much was made that it ought not to exist at all. No serious mention was made of the events that pre-dated its construction and the wave of suicide bombings in Israel that left a trail of wanton, indiscriminate, death and destruction.
For the young people in our group who are less familiar with events of the relatively recent past, allow me to present just one personal reflection. Maxims is my favourite restaurant stop at the southern entrance to Haifa where, in 2003, twenty-one people were killed, including three children and a baby girl, and 60 wounded in a suicide bombing carried out by a female terrorist. The Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack.
The bomber, Hanadi Jaradat, a 29-year-old lawyer from Jenin, managed to get past Maxim’s security guard before blowing herself up in the middle of the restaurant. The security guard was killed in the attack, along with three other Israeli Arab employees of the restaurant. The blast devastated the restaurant, of joint Jewish-Arab ownership.
We heard explanations, as we passed Har Bracha, of ‘hilltop youths’ throwing stones at Arab villagers and setting fire to olive trees. I find these incidents thoroughly distasteful and morally reprehensible.
Now, without in any way wishing to downplay the significance of these ugly events, we passed the sign post to Itamar a few minutes further on, the location of an ‘incident’ that occurred last year which did rate even a cursory mention by our guide. It does not make for pleasant reading. From Wikipedia:
The Itamar attack, also called the Itamar massacre, was an attack on a Jewish family in the Israeli settlement of Itamar in the West Bank that took place on 11 March 2011, in which five members of the same family were murdered in their beds. The victims were the father Ehud (Udi) Fogel, the mother Ruth Fogel, and three of their six children—Yoav, 11, Elad, 4, and Hadas, the youngest, a three-month-old infant. According to David Ha’ivri and as reported by multiple sources the infant was decapitated. The settlement of Itamar had been the target of several murderous attacks before these killings.
Machsom Watch reaction? Quotes from the Jerusalem Post. May 2nd 2011.
- Machsom Watch, a group of Israeli women who monitor treatment of Palestinians at IDF checkpoints, came under fire last week after a picture was published showing senior activist Raya Yaron hugging the mother of one of the men who allegedly murdered five members of the Fogel family in Itamar on March 11.
- Amjad Awad and Hakim Awad, two young Palestinian men from the village of Awarta, were arrested for the murders. On 5 June 2011 they were indicted on five counts of murder, stealing weapons, breaking and entering, and conspiracy to commit a crime. Both were later found guilty.
- According to Ynetnews, they initially denied any involvement in the attack but later proudly confessed to the killings, expressed no remorse and reenacted the attack before security officials.
- Xinhua, the official press agency of the People’s Republic of China, stated that the attack was praised by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
- The Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades stated that “the heroic operation is a natural response to the (Israeli) occupation crimes against our people in West Bank and Gaza Strip.”
- An opinion poll indicated that 63% of Palestinians opposed and about one-third supported the attack. One of the perpetrators of the murders was described as a “hero” and a “legend” by members of his family, during a weekly program.
We were informed by Daniella that we were not to expect a balanced viewpoint and that political discussions were taboo.
Now, we were right there!! Not a whisper? Trees-yes? Murder -no? This, in my opinion, transcends discussions on balanced viewpoints or political considerations. I submit that our guide was guilty of what I would term ‘deception by omission.’ One would have thought that imbalance would have limits. Apparently not.
I have personally believed, in my fifteen years of living here and being exposed to a very wide range of political leanings, that despite my disagreements with numerous friends of the Left, the women of Machsom Watch are not only a legitimate voice but are entitled to be commended for their concern and devotion to their cause in the pursuit of human rights. It speaks volumes for Israeli democracy to have them in our midst.
Having joined the tour of Monday last I am no longer convinced. For me to have been exposed to the torrent of slander against the Israel Defence Force is manageable if only to the extent that I am exposed, perhaps less vehemently, to other voices and opinions. Some of you even applauded when Daniella regaled us with her views, hardly militarily professional, against the law enforcement agencies and my concern is that you, my young fellow travellers, may not have the same opportunities that I have to form a balance.
Back to the tour itself!
At the eating establishment we visited in Nebi Elias the food was both tasty and very reasonably priced! The large map on the wall printed in Arabic, however, showed the flag of every country in the world except one. Can you guess?
Close to the end of the day, we passed the city of Ariel and were given some boring facts – it is 4 kms long, 375 meters wide, has 18000 inhabitants, many former citizens of the old Soviet Union. I suggest that our young visitors, particularly those of the Christian faith, would have been more interested in the fact that the most impressive building in the city is the John Hagee Convention Centre built by Christians United for Israel (CUFI) – the largest pro-Israel organization in the United States with over one million members and one of the leading Christian grassroots movements in the world.
Final word? PLEASE KEEP AN OPEN MIND!!
My sincere thanks to those who have read to here!!
