How does one fight for justice and peace? Do I maintain neutrality? Do I pick up a picket sign from the Women in Black that reads "Stop Occupation" in Hebrew, Arabic and English? Do I listen to the personal stories of those who have been literally beaten by Israeli soldiers, forced out of their homes and prevented from accessing clean drinking water, jobs and even their capital, without flinching? And what am I to make of the story of my roommate, Nadine, a Jerusalem resident who chose to break up with her Bethlehem boyfriend rather than marry and find themselves unable to live together?
Their stories are true. The Israeli government demolishes Palestinian homes seemingly at random. I witnessed the rubble today. The Israeli government is not finishing the wall, the wall which is meant to create checkpoints of security, nor do Israeli soldiers use the checkpoints to identify threats. We've driven our tour bus into the West Bank without stopping numerous times in the past two days. In the words of our Jewish Israeli guide, "I'm a smuggler. All you need is to know a few words in Hebrew and have a yellow license on the back of your car." And still, and still, there are no suicide bombers. It is not the wall which is stopping them- they can walk around the checkpoints if they so choose- however, Palestinians are making the choice to endure the occupation without violence.
How much longer can they make this choice before violence erupts again? The infrastructure is falling apart in the West Bank. Schools are turning away students due to severe overcrowding, sewers are overflowing, garbage piles up in the streets, without sidewalks, signals or space enough for the cars. The civilians of Jabal Muqabr Mountain contribute to the total 30% of the East Jerusalem population, pay their share of taxes to the Israeli government and receive 7% of total municipality funding (12% according to Israeli studies). The drive into the settlement, ma'el adomeem, which takes approximately 30 seconds as you cross a checkpoint is incredibly refreshing. They have green grass, in place of desert rubble, palm trees in place of a barren landscape, and beautiful homes in place of crumbling apartments.
The winds blew over our tour group today from the bottom of the valley where the ring of settlements around Jerusalem appears to be closing. One building, a police department funded by a private Jewish family of Los Angeles, stood alone in a place the U.S. State Department had forbidden. It was fully equipped with far more electricity lines and roads than one building should ever need. The future of the site seems fixed before the building has begun.
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