Israeli-Palestinian
Relations: Confessions from an Israeli Settler
January Report 2004
from our correspondent
Hannah
(a Jewish settler in Samaria)
|
I
admit that my take on Israel's relations with our Palestinian
neighbours has been shaped by what I've heard from the
Palestinians themselves. I mean "heard" across my dining
table, over a cup of Turkish coffee.
Yes,
that is my first confession: I am an Israeli
settler with Palestinian friends.
Why
is this a "confession", rather than proof of the right
to speak about Israeli-Palestinian issues? Actually,
it would be considered an asset - if only I
were firmly on the "liberal" side of the issue. Just
think how many interviews you've seen with peace activists
or foreign visitors who have Palestinian friends.
No one seems nearly as interested in hearing Jewish
settlers talk about their Palestinian friends - people
living side by side, every day, only a few kilometers
apart.
If
your response is: "There aren't any friendships
between Jewish settlers and their Palestinian neighbours..."
it just proves my point. If the media aren't interested,
then it doesn't exist.
I
guess that brings me to my second confession:
Friendships between Jewish settlers and Palestinian
villagers thriving in the midst of the violence and
hatred are just not "newsworthy".
The
global folks are not eager to show the other reality
- Jewish settlers and Palestinians living together
in peaceful coexistence, and have been for years.
Much less are they eager to ask why some are able
to, while others are not.
Therefore,
Confession Three: Not only are these Palestinians
welcome in my house, but I listen closely to what
they have to say, because they have no one else
who is willing to tell their story abroad. They
dare not speak to foreign journalists in their villages,
where neighbours have accused one another of "collaborating
with Israel" over far smaller offenses than being
politically incorrect. (Like the man they told us
about, who was jealous of his neighbor's new car and
reported him to Fatah as a "collaborator", causing
the car owner to be shot without trial or evidence.)
My Palestinian neighbours sometimes speak their minds
to Israeli journalists, under first names only, with
no hint of their location. But the resulting reports
stay strictly local, ignored by foreign news outlets.
So
what do these Palestinians talk about while drinking
my coffee? Everyday things we have in common (in Hebrew,
our common language). Things like difficulties in
making ends meet, a sick child, the weather and its
effect on our gardens. We never talked politics, until
Palestinian terror attacks became one of those everyday
things.
I'll
never forget one day in 1996, when our friend "M"
happened to walk in with a gift of fresh pita bread
from his wife. Regular programming on our TV had been
halted: details of yet another terror attack were
coming through. I felt awkward, not wanting to show
my pain and anger (making my friend feel guilty) or
to trigger a political argument (if he felt defensive).
But "M" already had a strong opinion. Gesturing at
the TV, he said: "It's the fault of your own government,
you know." I braced myself for the familiar PLO rhetoric,
inwardly resolving to preserve our friendship no matter
what. I was not prepared for his next comment: "Yes,
it is your fault -- none of this would be happening
if you Israelis hadn't let Arafat and his thugs from
Tunis come in and take over our villages!"
Then
my friend from across the valley gave me a glimpse
of the hell his people - my neighbours - were living
in, under the heel of outsiders (Arafat was not "Palestinian"
- he was born and raised in Cairo and never could
hide his Egyptian accent). These outsiders' first
acts had been to shut down independent Palestinian
press, replace local leaders with their own clique,
and undermine the clan-based authority system that
ruled Palestinian society to manipulate the youth.
"M" told me of creative solutions to the dilemma of
trying to survive, while trying to shield their families.
(The father meets armed Fatah "demonstrators" at the
front door, who are demanding that he send his children
out to be their rock-throwing human shields against
IDF soldiers. He agrees with their cause, he says,
but regrets that the children are not home just now.
Meanwhile the mother quietly hustles the children
out the back door.)
My
friend expressed anger too - anger at the Israelis
for never bothering to ask his people if they wanted
the "thugs from Tunis" in the first place. I freely
confess: It had never dawned on me in those days
that the Palestinians did not, to the last individual,
adore Yasser Arafat as their liberator. I too can
be misled by selective media reportage. I did,
however, remember picking up another clue from "Y",
who worked in the commercial center of our settlement.
It
was during the Oslo stage when Palestinian villages
were being chosen for "Area A", totally under PA control.
I innocently asked "Y" if his village, just visible
in the distance, was going to be part of "Area A",
expecting him to show joy at the prospect. He gave
me a dark look and muttered, "Not if we can help it."
An exodus had already begun there - Palestinian families
were quietly relocating to a village right next to
our settlement, betting on its chances of remaining
under Israeli control. (It did, and over the next
year it more than doubled in size.) It would be another
five years before I realized how widespread this view
was.
In
2001, the muktar from the respected Hamdan clan in
the Bethlehem area startled the whole country when
he unveiled a petition from East Jerusalem residents
- insisting that they be allowed to vote whether they
wanted PA rule or Israeli rule. Assassination attempts
by Arafat's forces did not deter Zuhair Hamdan, or
the 10,000 Palestinians who risked their lives to
sign his petition. Yet to this day, their bid for
the right of self-determination has received no attention
at all from the UN, the major media outlets, or any
"peace process" delegations. Apparently the "self-determination"
of the Palestinian people is being determined by others...
and no one outside of the Israeli or Jewish press
wants you to be confused by what they really want.
(One refreshing exception was Arab commentator Joseph
Farrah at WorldNetDaily.com.
Because
the media sources you rely on have made certain "policy"
decisions, you simply don't hear from tens of thousands
of Palestinians who prefer Israeli rule. And because
you haven't heard their voices, or why they feel that
way,
You
may not be ready for my next confession: My closest
friends among the Palestinians are those who have
been tortured in jails. Not Israeli jails,
from where so many Arab prisoners get press coverage
and visits from human rights groups. These are the
PA jails, where no outsiders are allowed. Their own
citizens are held there without trial, tortured for
months with barbaric cruelty, hidden away until money
is extorted from their families. Their crimes? Officially,
that catch-all known as "collaboration with Israel",
usually embellished with something like "drug dealing".
("M" remarked sarcastically that with all the money
he must be making as a drug dealer, he can't figure
out why he is struggling to buy food for his family!)
But the accusation thrown at my closest friends by
their tormentors, behind closed prison doors, is the
crime of leaving Islam to embrace Jesus as their Savior.
You
see, Arabs are not free to "become" Christians
in Muslim countries. Only Palestinians
born into a Christian family can call themselves Palestinian
Christians. Missionizing among Muslims, either by
foreigners or by local believers, is a crime for both
those who preach and those who listen. My formerly-Muslim
Palestinian friends have paid an awesome price for
the religious freedom we so take for granted. Even
after being released from jail, several of them were
forced by death threats to leave their families and
seek asylum across the Green Line in pre-1967 Israel,
or across the ocean in North America.
You
might be wondering who, at the risk of life and safety,
first brought the gospel to these special friends
living in my area, and discipled them to the point
where they could withstand persecution? It wasn't
a Palestinian Christian. My Palestinian friends say
that they are generally greeted with suspicion or
avoided by Palestinian Christians. No, I must confess:
It was a small band of Israeli settlers who believe
in Jesus.
Years
ago, when visits were easy between Palestinian villages
and Jewish settlements, this group distributed Arabic
Bibles, visited homes and held study groups. They
brought practical help and spiritual food to the poor.
They braved threats from Muslim clerics, and had to
walk past Hamas posters promising their violent demise.
They witnessed miraculous conversions - and miraculous
testimonies of hatred for Jews that disappeared the
moment Jesus saved them. They brought Israeli journalists
to meet these new believers, and saw cynical reporters
moved to tears by the simple faith of men who still
bore scars from beatings and cigarette burns inflicted
by PA jailors. And it was the believing Jewish settlers
who sought (and received) cooperation from the IDF
and foreign diplomats to help these persecuted brethren
leave their villages for safer shores when necessary.
By
the way, the reason I know so much about this is because:
I too believe in Yeshua the Messiah. I am not only
a neighbour to these evangelists and their Palestinian
disciples, but part of a local spiritual family that
has grown to include Jews, Christians and Muslims
as equals before the Lord. It's the main reason why
"M" feels at home in our home. Messiah's love has
done what no "peace process" or "coexistence project"
will ever do.
In
the last 4-1/2 years of unrelenting violence, freedom
of movement has become greatly restricted for both
sides of our small spiritual family. Only a few Palestinian
disciples have IDF permits to enter Israeli areas,
while Israeli believers can no longer go anywhere
near PA-held villages. The villagers who sought asylum
in pre-1967 Israel are now attending a congregation
in the Tel Aviv area (and as it so happens, their
pastor is yet another Jewish settler....). For those
still living in the villages, Bible studies must sometimes
be conducted in a car pulled off the highway between
settlement and village.
Speaking
of the IDF and the last 4-plus years of terrorism,
allow me one more confession: My Palestinian friends
are grateful for the IDF operations in PA cities like
Jenin and Nablus. It was during one of those military
raids that our friend and brother "S" was set free,
at a time when even his family didn't know his whereabouts.
He was one of several hundred "political" prisoners
being held in the Nablus jail. When the PA realized
that the IDF was about to enter the city (our friend
later told us), the PA police emptied the prison and
ordered all the "collaborators" into an abandoned
building, locking them in. They told the prisoners
they expected the Israelis to bomb such buildings
as part of their anti-terror operation. The resulting
deaths would be used later to promote claims of a
"massacre" perpetrated by the IDF.
Sure
enough, within hours IDF bomb sappers approached the
building, suspicious that it was booby-trapped like
so many structures they have to enter when hunting
down hidden terrorists. They were about to begin demolition
when they heard cries for help inside. Still worried
about a trap, they were debating what to do, when
the desperate Palestinians managed to break a hole
in the wall from inside and explain who they were.
After spending several days to carefully establish
the identity of each prisoner (and to give them food
and medical attention, since they were neglected and
malnourished), the Israeli soldiers sent them home.
Long
afterward, I discovered that the son of an Israeli
friend had participated in that Nablus operation,
and he confirmed the story. Here again I must confess:
this young man was double trouble... not just a despised
IDF soldier who willingly served in PA territories,
but still another Israeli who had grown up in a Jewish
settlement! Consider the irony of a settler-soldier
who had helped rescue 200 Palestinian prisoners, after
their own fleeing leaders had cynically set them up
to become more "victims of the occupation" that he
represents.
Downplaying
the heroic aspect, the soldier commented with a shrug
that such incidents were a familiar part of IDF operations
in PA cities. I was aware of this already. Similar
stories of mercy had come out of the Jenin "massacre"
as well, accompanied by that same matter-of-fact IDF
shrug that said, "Hey, it's just part of what we do."
I also knew that these powerful human-interest stories
would probably not be seen beyond the borders of Israel.
It would be against the "editorial policy" of most
global TV producers to disturb their viewers with
camera footage of a compassionate IDF.
Now
for my final confession. One day last year, I
shared what I had learned from my Palestinian friends
with a self-avowed left-wing Israeli humanitarian.
I was hoping to change his perception of settlers
as "obstacles to peace" and oppressors of their Palestinian
neighbours. I was also hoping to enlist his help as
an educated human-rights supporter on behalf of these
people who have been deprived of an international
voice. I was in for a shock. As I described the various
trials endured by my friends, he became visibly uncomfortable,
then annoyed. Finally he demanded in resentment: "What
do you want from me?! What Palestinians do to other
Palestinians is not our responsibility! The only moral
issue here is that Israel is ruling over another people.
Once there is a Palestinian state, we can get on with
our own lives. They can go ahead and kill one another
for all I care, long as they leave us out of it!"
I
confess, I had been naive about the motives a left-wing
liberal might have for supporting a Palestinian state.
But it suddenly made sense why a settler cared so
much about Palestinian suffering, and this "human
rights" advocate cared so little; why pro-Israel Palestinians
were being ignored by the peace movements; why coexistence
between Palestinians and settlers was being censored
out of world media and left out of the "Road Maps".
This attitude, "what Arabs do to each other doesn't
concern us", is not an isolated case. I discovered
that it characterises the Israeli Left. It seems to
be widespread in the global Left too. Even among the
"Palestinian Rights" advocates, questions about PA
human rights abuses are either denied or blamed on
an Israeli "occupation" that ended in the PA areas
over a decade ago.
Funny
thing... when voices are raised for Palestinian liberation
from oppression and abuse by their own leaders, they
seem to be coming from the wrong direction... You
know - people branded as "right-wing extremists".
Guess which side has been faithfully exposing Palestinian
child abuse, in which thousands of toddlers are indoctrinated
with a death wish? Why isn't it Amnesty International
or "Peace Now"...? For an example, go to (if you dare)
at the globally censored documentary clip, "Hatred
From the Cradle" - http://www.kokhavivpublications.com/forum/kfor/kfor0011.html
- and then ask yourself why no network agreed
to air this 30-second alert, even as a paid announcement.
You
have to wonder why the Israeli settlers - and the
right-wing personalities who support them - have been
relentlessly portrayed in the news as violent, callous
fanatics with only contempt for Palestinians. Settlers
are not necessarily saints, but neither are they demons.
(Like every subgroup in the world, there are always
a few that can be found to reinforce a nasty stereotype.)
You have to wonder why my confessions seem to contradict
everything ever publicised about us.
I'll
tell you why: We settlers must be silenced
and delegitimised, because we know too much. We
remember the days when we and the Palestinians celebrated
together at each other's weddings, shopped together
in each other's stores, and - if you can believe it
- enjoyed Israel's Independence Day fireworks together.
We make a distinction between these neighbours and
the terrorist gangs who now rule their streets by
brute force. We care about the welfare of our Palestinian
neighbours, because we have proven from experience
that coexistence is possible. But in doing that, we
have proven that there is no need for ethnic cleansing
of all Jews from Arab areas.
Those
who are bent on destroying us - even if it means destroying
their own children - are the real "obstacles to peace",
and we will never join the rest of the world in pretending
otherwise, because unlike the rest of the world we
live with the reality. Does that knowledge make the
settlers dangerous people? Apparently so. What we
have to say is dangerous to the spiritual forces that
specialise in perverting the truth and sabotaging
righteousness. Our battle is not with flesh and blood
(Ephesians 6:12). Or even with media policies and
political processes. The global media and the political
processes are shaped by people who care for neither
the Palestinian's quality of life nor Israel's God.
They think that they decide world opinion, but they
are only flesh and blood. Their script is being written
by "spiritual wickedness in high places" - powers
whose only agenda is to make the God of Israel into
a liar. They are afraid the settler experiment just
might succeed, because that would allow Israel to
reclaim all the Biblical homeland, as God promised
she would... and do it peacefully... and bring benefits
to those neighbours willing to live with her, as God
promised.
They
cannot afford to let you imagine that Jewish settlers
are even capable of peaceful coexistence with Arabs.
Hence, the strategy of presenting an image of the
"Israeli settler" that will make sure you never want
to listen to them. The real tip-off of who designs
this strategy is the strange insistence on portraying
the settlers as callous, violent religious fanatics.
Did you know that most Israeli settlers are not skullcapped,
bearded orthodox Jews? The vast majority of settlers
in the larger settlements are in fact secular. But
the Jewish religion has to be associated with the
"demon settler" image, in order to discredit the Jewish
Bible as the source of all that "evil". (Think about
it. Discrediting that Book couldn't possibly be relevant
to profit-driven network CEOs who only care for ratings.
It could only matter to entities who have personal
hatred for the Author.) We Israeli settlers have the
support of many Christians who believe that when God
says His Covenants are "forever", He means it.
They
understand the real nature of this war. We have the
support of Israeli believers and Palestianian believers,
who recognize that there is room in God's Land for
both the Jews and the Palestinians, and that "separation"
is not necessary where Messiah rules. They also understand
who our real enemy is.
Whether
we have your support will depend on how well informed
you are about what is really going on in Israel, the
Palestinian areas and - most importantly - the spiritual
world.
Visit
Israeli websites, and give equal time to the side
you never seem to hear from on your news broadcasts.
Compare BBC or CNN reports with a first-hand source
like the Jerusalem Post on-line (http://www.jpost.com).
Find
out who the Israeli settlers are and what they are
saying - go to http://www.IsraelNationalNews.com.
Best of all, visit Israel and see what is going on
for yourself.
Think
more critically about what you are shown on your news
networks. Learn to discern patterns of bias and make
allowances for them. A good guide is: Bias - a CBS
Insider Exposes How the Media Distort the News, by
Bernard Goldberg (a New York Times bestseller).
Learn
what your Bible says about Israel's disputed territories
(for example, Ezekiel 36). Let it say what it has
to say, without apology or editing. Do the things
you read seem impossible to reconcile with what you
see? Leave room for your God to do the impossible
things He has promised. Either He is God of all you
see, or He isn't God at all (you see?).
Pray
that Israel will be convicted by those same Scriptures,
and will repent and return to the Lord her God and
to His ways. Pray that the Palestinians will soon
enjoy the same freedoms that their Israeli neighbours
have. Someday there will be Palestinian news sources
that can tell the truth without fear of reprisal...
and Palestinian evangelists who will be able to bring
the Good News to both sides of the Green Line... triggering
a spiritual revival like this world has never seen.
Who
knows what will happen to Israeli-Palestinian relations
then!
