Israel's uber-wardens and the story of my friend B.
A friend and neighbour of mine, B, recently got accepted to get her masters in engineering in Bir Zeit University in Ramallah. She is around 30 years old. After numerous attempts, B had to withdraw her standing (after paying one semester's tuition) because Israel kept denying her permit based on ... you guessed it..."security reasons".
B has also not seen her sister who lives in Ramallah for 5 years now because of the travel ban. The most they can do is exchange photos through her personal family blog and talk on the phone-even thouh they are only one hour apart, the moon may as well be closer! This is the case for almost all Gazans.
B. She came with her family during the "Oslo Days" with many other Palestinains who lived outside, in her case, from Syria. After years and years of exile, they were able to obtain permits and eventually ID cards (issued by Israel) in a deal that allowed many Palestinians to return to Gaza. Now, says B, she went from being in one prison on the outside, unable to live in her homeland, to another internal prison, unable to move, study, or visit her family.
B also had to drop all her dreams in one fell swoop of her continuing education there because of Israel's..."uber-wardens".
"The soldier at the checkpoint or behind the Civil Administration counter...the Israeli uber-wardens... is the last, least important, link in the thicket of restrictions and limitations...implanting the jailor mentality in thousands of Israeli young people, soldiers, clerks and policemen - an intoxicating mentality of those who treat those weaker than they with impunity," explains Amira Hass, in another gripping article where she describes every so eloquently the matrix of Israeli control over Palestinians.
"a thicket of physical, corporeal barriers of all types and sizes (checkpoints, roadblocks, blockades, fences, walls, steel gates, roads prohibited to traffic, dirt embankments, concrete cubes) and by way of a frequently updated assortment of bans and limitations."
Periodic bans supplement permanent wants, and in the end, none of it is "news", Hass says, because the asphyxiation of Palestinians, the rupture of everyday Palestinian life has become so routine.
Erez Crossing into Israel, Gaza Strip.Gazans, such as myself and millions of others, cannot enter the West Bank. Palestinians, including residents of Jericho, are not permitted to be in the Jordan Valley. Palestinians residing in East Jerusalem cannot enter West Bank cities (except for Ramallah). Citizens of Arab states, like my husband, (not jus refugees, and any state really, since Israel controls family-reunification permits) married to Palestinians are prohibited from entering the West Bank and Gaza.
In Gaza's case, the West Bank is a mere 70 kilometres away. But hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who have family in the West BAnk have been unable to visit them in YEARS, and many many others who have been accepted to study in universities there cannot, because, to quote a recent (January) Israeli high-court ruling, made in response to the appeal of 10 Gaza students to study Occupational Therapy (there is only once licensed Occupational Therapist in all of Gaza, and 25, 000 injured people) in Bethlehem, "West Bank Universities are breeding grounds for terrorism"...and "Gaza is a foreign entity for which the state of Israel is no longer responsible"
...control without responsiblity, the true formula of disengagement, the recipe for ultimate disaster.
Occupation? What occupation?
posted by Laila @ Thursday, April 13, 2006
44 Comments:
A person who is unfamiliar with the actual events would be utterly misled by reading this. Are you saying that Israel is putting all these restrictions for no reason whatsoever?
To add insult to injury, I, an American, was able to go study at BirZeit University with no problem.
If the Israelis truly wanted security they would be allowing B and all the others in Palestine longing for an education to get it.
Hi, Laila You say:
"In Gaza's case, the West Bank is a mere 70 kilometres away. But hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who have family in the West BAnk have been unable to visit them in YEARS"
Hi, as I understand the 70 km distance is going through Israel within 1967 borders. Another fact is Israel and Palestinians are engaged in bitter war of attrition. Since you are not citizen of Israel( I assume you voted in resent election in Palestine, not Israel) Looks like Israel has the right not to allow you to cross their territory.
According to my knowledge they used to allow in BEFORE the intifada. I realize, people have relatives, buisness in the west bank, but I am not sure you the right to go to Israel proper by the International Law. If I were you I would go to Egypt and take a plane to Jordan, then cross to West Bank. In case they don't allow you there, still the Law, unfortunately on their side. I can understand their concern about security. If for example you are coming from Iran to America, they may not let you in either.
Another solution to go to study in any other university in Arab World or in Europe. In a time of war there are conciderations. I know, as a European saw many Palestinian Ambulances going for treatment in Israel before the intifada.
By the way, militants shoot lots of missiles from Gaza where you live to Sderot, which is Israeli Town WITHIN 1967 borders. So they may say: Look, you guys shoot missiles into my cities, why should I give you permition to come to my home? Sorry, Laila may be I don't understand correctly, so forgive me...
I hope you and Yusuf doing well. He is a very kude boy. I would like to have a boy like this, but I am not married...I hope you doing well. I think to go and volunteer in Gaza. Do you have any suggestions?
Judy
This is Karin ...
It is beyond me how people can be THAT cruel and inhumane ... people who experienced themselves less than a century ago what cruelty means! What is at least AS terrible is that the entire world is looking silently - and NOBODY dares to speak up and call a spade a spade! Even worse - the USA sponsors these cruelties and blindly Ok's every move these ruthless occupiers make! How BLIND and IGNORANT can people be?? These funds go maily straight to the military - and thus again against people .. like you! I feel so terribly helpless - I wish so much I could help in ANY way! Please give your neighbour my best regards and tell her I highly sympathise with her! Believe me Leila .. there are no people on this planet which I respect higher that YOU GUYS .. the Palestinian people!!
A word to SHLEMAZL ... you have a fitting logo - with your permanent ridiculing and defaming people who are suffering, you can go to where the guy on the picture comes from!! I wish you a pleasant trip ...
A word not TO but ABOUT "SHLEMAZL" ...
"Raving atheist Shameless Zionist Pro-Bush NeoCon Professional Jew without bad habits ..."
I guess if someone describes himsef (in his blog) this way ... no more words are needed! That's quite self-explanatory ... I leave it open for everyone to judge! With that you just disqualified yourself!
Karin
There were far fewer restrictions before the Palestinian leadership started a "war" - a terrorist campaign.
The Palestinian people have now elected an even more extreme leadership - an Islamic fundamentalist one who publically state that they desire "martyrdom." If people outside the Palestinian territories can understand Hamas' platform, then the Palestinians certainly have.
Having voted for further confrontation, Palestinians can hardly complain about the consequences of waging a terrorist campaign. Without the restrictions on movement(and Israel is in the fortunate position of being able to isolate their opponents), I have the impression the situation would be far worse than the current low-intensity phase.
If Palestinians want freedom of movement, that would require a national leadership committed to peace with Israel, on Israel's terms. That's realpolitik.
Terrorism has hugely damaged the Palestinian cause since the 1970s. Post-911 it is an act of national suicide.
Restriction on Palestinian movement started in 1991, during the first Gulf War: before the current Intifada, before suicide bombing. There were Palestinian attacks on Israelis long before 1991, but they did not result in such policy. On the contrary: Palestinians could more or less travel freely through Israel and work there.
The real reasons behind it are economic and have to do more with globalization than anything else. This is a statment that will probably anger most of Israeli readers. But to give one example: workers from Gaza - people with working permits - were generally not involved in any attacks inside Israel (as far as know, with two exceptions only in the last 10 years - and this is from the days that tens of thousands worked in Israel). Yet they are denied entry. Again, this is not about security.
Judy says that Israel has the right to prevent people going through its territory. But the fact is that even the long route, not through Israeli territory - Gaza to Egypt, and then Jordan, then the West Bank - is not permitted because Gazans will not be allowed entry.
The Isreali-Palestinian history is full of violence; this violence is used by all elements involved to justify and explain their actions and reactions. "They did A so naturally we have to do B". A cruel game of retalliation and counter-retalliation.
But history is not ping-pong. The parties choose the ways they "react" according to reasons which have very little with the recent violent events.
This is especially apparent with the Israeli restrictions on movement. The Israeli policy from 67 to late 80s was one of economic integration with the West Bank and Gaza. The Palestinian attacks during these years triggered various Israeli reactions (most popular was bombing the refugee camps in Lebanon) but not restriction on movement.
This changed in the early 90s; there was a shift in policy, from integration to separation. The history of closures starts then; these closures are then repeatedly explained by Palestinian violence. This explanation is readily accepted by Israeli public opinion, but it is a false one. But I just wonder how people would take it if they couldn't travel from Tel Aviv to Haifa each time a Palestinian civilian is killed.
Freedom of movement is a basic human right. No one in the US would put up with this in our country, yet our foreign policy supports such abuses by other governments. Not everyone here in the US backs such abuses. Also, many people just do not know. Your blog is helping people here to see what is really happening. My heart breaks for everyone in the camps. None of humanity is free until all of humanity is free.
Thing is, no one told the Palestinians to start an intifada.
H ... That's correct but to call that only "bad habits" is a vast understatement! The guy ("SHLEMAZL") urgently needs an attitude-adjustment and even MORE urgently a good lesson in humanity! Realising he's bending over backwards only to provoke, insult and humiliate, he simply shouldn't be done the favour of giving him too much (or any) attention.
Solitarioh, if you don't know what you are talking about, why don't you try listening and reading and doing research instead of rambling on with your uninformed comments on other people's blogs. The proposed US-Mexico fence would be on the established and internationally recognized border. The West Bank fence goes into Palestinian territory. If it were on the Green line, it would not really be controversial.
As long as a have a front door in my house and everybody does,it means that this is my private place and I do not allow everybody to come in.
Or does Elizabeth leaves her front door open to everyone to come in? Why not?
Have anyone here already been to U.S? How many questions do they do to you? Or to England?
What´s it´s so surprising about it? All over the world you have borders and fences and interwiews and visas.
Palestinians are not allowed to enter Kuwait as well (As far as I know).
When it comes to Israel it´s a humanity issue.
Oh,come on,if you people are really so interest in humanity why don´t you do anything to help starving children in Africa?
Not so interesting?
Message to a dracul.
Please do something about your depression. Looks like you are in dire straits. There is a way to treat depression, please asl for help, go for check up!
Frankly with a name "a Dracula"
you are obviously watch lots of horror movies and probably too much news. Please change your name to something more chearfull, like
" a happy one" you gonna feel much better, guaranteed.
Judy
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
To all commentators,
Solitarioh2005 is anonimo2005 and has a blog called Gazauncensored where he posts some of Laila's posts and mine also and comments on them sometimes as another person and sometimes as himself.
He posted one of my posts (From the Guardian to Haaretz) in its entirety without aknowledging the origin. I am not sure what kind of game he is playing.
http://gazauncensored.blogspot.com
3:08 AM
Freedom of movement is something US citizens take for granted. I can travel wherever I like inside the boarders of my country. The Palestinians can't. They have been evicted from their homes and herded into camps. Then they must stop at checkpoints just to do things like visit the doctor. No one, and I mean no one in the US would put up with it. Many people would pick up arms. I'm not advocating it. But that's what would happen. If someone forced you out of your home and put you into a camp, you might feel the same way. And here on Good Friday, instead of US Christians advocating for peace and reconciliation, many (not all of course) continue to support the persecution of humans made in God's image, who happen to be Palestinian...including the encampment of their Palestinian Christian brothers and sisters. I think Jesus followers can do better than that. Just look at Sabeel.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Then (the palestinians) must stop at checkpoints just to do things like visit the doctor. No one, and I mean no one in the US would put up with it..
There are no suicide bombers in the US but when it comes to Iraq...,the US forces in Baghdad are inside a green Zone, a zone where no one does enter.
You cant compare the situation of Israel where more than 100 suicide bombers strike with the situation inside the us.
When it comes to Iraq.., US forces do not make checkpoints ? Of course they do.
(And actually much more people get killed in Iraq by US forces than in palestine by IDF forces).
In all countries at war ( Lebanon by instance ) there were checkpoints since no one does enjoy to be blown up by a car full of explosives
anonimoh2005 said...
I do confirm that I am solitarioh2005.
I never hide it.
Actually I have posted here with this nick also.
In this very blog there is a link to Gaza uncensored.
The Blog Gaza uncensored was born when I saw some of my comments beings censored in this blog.
(and I got censored in other blogs also . In order to be able to comment some posts I was forced to start my own blog.)
I did post a link to your article as well as a link to this article in Gaza uncored.
Besides I made clear Layla is not doing censorship now.
In case Layla got offended by any of my commments I can delete them.
Having said that I think I have the right to comment other peoples posts in my blog.
That is exactly what sophia did when it comes to a Haaretz article.
She did comment it on her Blog.
Same did I
I give you the benefit of the doubt that English might not be your first language, but you know
censorship doesn't mean what you apparently think it means.
It's a little sad, actually, that after no one wanted to thrash with you you decided to clone Laila's blog and have imaginary conversations with her.
Abu Shaar,
not only is he having imaginary conversations, he has in the past taken pictures of mine from the web and digitally distorted them without my permission until I sent him an email telling him, to put it mildly, how uncomfortable I am with this. In short-he scares me.
As for you, Paul (aka solitaira, anonima, et al), what you have done on your alter-blog is a copyright infringement. You have posted my exact words with no permission from me and in some cases with no attribution.
Further, you seem not to be familiar with what a blog is, and that fact that what you refer to as "censorship" is "comment moderation". I'll stop here as this is already getting to be a waste of time and energy.
Judy 443:
"If I were you I would go to Egypt and take a plane to Jordan, then cross to West Bank."
As someone mentioned above, I can't-the principle is not crossing into Israel's territory, its Israel controlling movement in and out of territories it illegally occupied-the West Bank, Gaza Strip, East Jerusalem (not to mentoin the Golan Heights). It is obligated to facilitate movement to and between and inside these territories according to International Law. Its their responsiblity to find a method to faciliate the movement, whether that is a highway or a train or a road system. Anyhow I dn't have time to continue here too much to do maybe later...
Times of War? Let's try times of Occupation.
It happens that to move inside "their country" they have to cross into Israel,and Israel it´s not obligate to allow it.
And now Israel it´s obligate to "find a way" to facilitate you to move inside "your country"?
Just spend more money to build a train or a road?
Soory that it´s your obligation. Of course you should maybe seat together to find a way how it´s going to work from now on.
But,don´t matter if times of war or times of occupation like you call.
Isarel has no responsability whatsoever,you want your "country",just find a way or a solution "yourselves" and your brilliant government how you can move.Spend your money or like I told before, Arafat´s wife money in trains,road systems or whatever.
And only fopr your concern Kevin,how do you think that Jews haven feel when they have to leave their houses in Irak,Lebanon or Iran?
Have you ever heard about any Jewih Community on those countries?
At how many of the twenty two arab countries you heard about a Jewish Community?
You know what happened to those people houses?
So,please don´t come to me to talk about freedom,and violation and occupation.
Anonimoh2005, Solitarioh2005, gazauncensored...is portuguese. I also know his web server name. He might be one of those portuguese jews whose ancestors were oppressed during the christian inquisition and obligated to hide their religion. Now he is blaming it on Muslims and Palestinians.
What he is doing is really mean. He is copying my posts also entirely and posting them on 'his' blog and commenting on them under another name. He is unable to write by himself. He is inarticulate, hateful and above all dishonest.
he has in the past taken pictures of mine from the web and digitally distorted them without my permission until I sent him an email telling him, to put it mildly, how uncomfortable I am with this. In short-he scares me.
Some of my scary pictures can still be seen in this blog .
Click here to see a twisted picture I did
Or click here
When it comes to the pictures Of layla I took from the web I did confirm that for fun I did modify 2 pictures of her that she has in her blog profile .
(In my blog I can post pictures I did change just 4 fun )
I did modify one a few months ago.
Since it was a picture of Layla out of respect I thought I should send her first, before posting it in this blog.
Layla did reply that she did prefer I did not post it and I said no problem.
I did respect her.
A month or so did pass.
Someone in this blog did comment Layla might eventually cover her face .
After reading that comment I had the idea to make a picture of Layla with face covered.
As I did for the first picture I did show her my work first.
The end result was very similar to this picture.
Click here to see
Is this picture in any way disrespectful ?
No.
Layla in a brief mail told me she did not feel confortable with what I had done and I did apologize.
Such episode did happen Feb 19, 2006.
I respect Layla will and I did not post anywhere in the web the aforementioned picture.
In no moment Layla told me I did scare her.
Sophia criticism
"SOPHIA WROTE He is unable to write by himself. He is inarticulate, hateful and above all dishonest.".
My dishonesty :
I never hide anonimoh2005 was solitarioh2005.
Actually I never posted in this blog as anonimous and I publicly declare that I solitario was anonimo.
I am hateful ?
I just remind you that in this very post I wrote:
" In case Layla got offended by any of my comments I did post in my blog I can delete them.".
This is not to be hateful.
When it comes to Sophia I called her antisemite.
(And not only to her).
But I did justify.
Sophia and others in their blogs do accuse Israel day after day Israel and the Israelis.
But if one does dare to criticize this relentless criticism.., one is labeled of hateful and disohnest.
People think they have the right to criticize Israelis and Israel, but they do not admit any criticism .
It's a little sad, actually, that after no one wanted to thrash with you you decided to clone Laila's blog and have imaginary conversations with her.
As you saw by Sophia post I had not just "imaginary " conversations with Layla.
I think I made myself understood. I decided to post in a blog of mine the comments I was doing in other peoples Blogs and they did not publish.
To have imaginary conversations..., is to comment a post and next realize that the comment went to the trash can.
In case I post my comments in public anyone can see what I wrote and such comments are not imaginary anymore.
Exactly because I do not enjoy imaginary comments that get deleted by the Blogs administrators I decided to start posting my comments in my blog.
In my blog I post comments I did to you, to Gert, To sophia and to Layla.
Paul:
"In no moment Layla told me I did scare her."
Well in case it wasn't clear before-YOU SCARE ME. Please DO NOT digitally modify any of my personal pictures-including but not limited to pictures of Yousuf's toys. Do you want that in writing somewhere so you can sign? Please stop harassing me. Don't you have someone else's blog to stalk or is it just mine?
And I meant Peter, not Paul.
Don't you have someone else's blog to stalk or is it just mine?
1- You never told me you saw my messages as stalking.
I am not the only person that does post here.
2 I tried to respect you as I already show.
3- I will stop posting here and I will delete the references I do to you in the blog uncensored.
I will dissapear.
No problem.
You never told me you saw my messages as stalking.
I am not a criminal and I have always tried to respect you.
Thank God!!! nshkur allah he is gone (I hope) ......by the way, Happy Easter everyone!
H
I echo the last comment made by anon (5.45pm).
Although the individual called anonimoh2005 states that he has always tried to be respectful, it is apparent to any objective observer that the actions of this person are sad, disturbing and constitutes harrasment.
This is particularly so when you describe that you emailed Laila to request that your doctored photo's of her be published. To decide to manipulate her photo in the first place is disturbing... let alone emailing her about it... and then publishing them after you knew of her wishes.
I hope you don't do this again to her or anyone else again. It really is totally unacceptable behaviour.
Laila said "As someone mentioned above, I can't-the principle is not crossing into Israel's territory, its Israel controlling movement in and out of territories it illegally occupied-the West Bank, Gaza Strip, East Jerusalem (not to mentoin the Golan Heights). It is obligated to facilitate movement to and between and inside these territories according to International Law. Its their responsiblity to find a method to faciliate the movement, whether that is a highway or a train or a road system. Anyhow I dn't have time to continue here too much to do maybe later..."
When you talking about:
"It is obligated to facilitate movement to and between and inside these territories according to International Law. "
Ther is no International law even close to what you describe. Why? Becoase I checked it up. This is the same situation as in Iraq and Afganistan. There is NO obligation to provide free pass to population of the hostile entity.
The best bet for Palestinians is to disarm Hamas and sease hostilities. By the way THIS is International law and THIS is the reason the world united against Hamas.
The well being of Palestinians is important for every person who care for ordinary falks who are peaseful and want to feed their families and have good jobs and want 2 state solution..
However their leaders are shooting themselves in a foot. They want to fight Israel even if it means to defy the whole world.
Every person with eyes in his head can see Hamas is headind in very bad direction. Good Luck, Laila
Another thing, how can we pressure Israel to go easy on Palestinians when Hamas charter say this?
Here
http://www.palestinecenter.org/cpap/documents/charter.html
"Article Thirteen: Peaceful Solutions, [Peace] Initiatives and International Conferences
[Peace] initiatives, the so-called peaceful solutions, and the international conferences to resolve the Palestinian problem, are all contrary to the beliefs of the Islamic Resistance Movement. For renouncing any part of Palestine means renouncing part of the religion; the nationalism of the Islamic Resistance Movement is part of its faith, the movement educates its members to adhere to its principles and to raise the banner of Allah over their homeland as they fight their Jihad: “Allah is the all-powerful, but most people are not aware.” From time to time a clamoring is voiced, to hold an International Conference in search for a solution to the problem"
If you read their covenant it is clear they don't want pease to say the least
To decide to manipulate her photo in the first place is disturbing... let alone emailing her about it... and then publishing them after you knew of her wishes.
I delete all references to layla on my site.
I did my share.
I would apreciate that
You stop talking about me .
Thank You
I do not publish my exchange of mails between me and Layla because I respect her.
Now it is me that is being harrased.
I also changed the lay out of my blog so that people could not claim I was copying laila layout.
It would be apreciated id you stop talking about me since this is a public blog.
http://gazauncensored.blogspot.com/
and then publishing them after you knew of her wishes.
I did not publish anywhere the pictures I did show to layla.
Not even now.
I show a picture that was similar to the one I did.
I never posted or published any pictures of her.
a dracul,
Your statement that "the Jews are occupying land that doesn't belong to them" is simply devoid of historical context. Read your history and you will learn that Israel (not "the Jews") had no desire to take any of that land, until they were attacked by Arab armies from all sides.
Had those Arab armies won the war, of course, they would have murdered and/or deported all the Jews, just as Jordan did to all Jewish residents of the old city of Jerusalem in 1948. No reparations, no historical homeland, no nothin. Oh, and from 1948-1967 there were no Arab references anywhere to an "indigenous Palestinian people" requiring liberty from Jordan. Small wonder, as Jordan itself is at least 2/3rds the same ethnicity.
So all the talk of "occupation" "right of return" etc. is more than a bit hypocritical. No Arab was interested in hearing any of this when Jordan held the keys to Jerusalem.
So Israel occupied the lands, after it was attacked. Jerusalem's Old City is no longer up for negotiation. The Arabs had it, and permitted no Jew to step foot in the city, much less worship at Judaism's holiest site. They attacked Israel, and now everyone can worship freely (barring alerts of imminent terrorist attacks), with the exception of Jews who want to ascend the Temple Mount. Anyone who believes in freedom of religion must acknowledge that the Holy Sites of Jerusalem have fared far better in Israeli hands.
For further proof of the contrast, just see what the Palestinians did to the Tomb of Yosef.
Yet Israel is still willing to negotiate -- the new Hamas government is not merely unwilling, they also have declared null and void all their previous agreements.
Since the existence of the PA is itself the result of the agreements, Hamas has declared the existence of the PA itself null and void.
So right now, they have no rights to anything. The only way out is for them to drop their guns and start talking.
When Laila starts saying that, though, they will come for her and kill her.
On restrictions on movement and international law see here
I would like somebody who is not Jewish or Israeli or maybe Laila to answer the following question: 9 people killed and 65 wounded, what are the citizens of Israel do?
dracul: I do not understand what you mean..........is it irish, english......or is it damnation for everybody?
Dear Laila--your post, alas, reminds me of the situation of many in my own country as well (or in places under control of my country, the united states--so divided these days).
You are bravely bringing truth to light, and as a dracul has noted, speaking truth to power.
For which you have my thanks.
dracul: did you read Don Quijote? did you read 100 years of solitude? Did you read Die Buddenbrooks.....Shakeaspeare is not the only great writer in this world. So, if you are interested in peace, the first step is discourse....
I recall when travel was open to all Palestinians and many worked in Israel. Then your leader, Arafat, decided to launch the Intifadas, Hamas and all your other murderers launched homicide bombings. So, what do you expect? You cant have it both ways,
anonymous, as a
'realist' is not a human thinker; I will always expect a miracle, which is why I read Laila's blog.
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