Last year B'Tselem, the Israeli centre for human rights in the Occupied Territories, distributed video cameras to Palestinians living in the West Bank to enable them to document the realities of life under military occupation. The returned footage illustrates vividly the systematic humiliation, intimidation and abuse suffered by Palestinians on a daily basis. When the media report of a period of "calm", they are referring only to a lull in overt acts of extreme violence, such as Palestinian suicide bombings or Israeli air-strikes. But even in such periods, the constant degredation and violence that is intrinsic to the occupation, as documented in the footage sampled below, grinds on.
'During a search for wanted persons in Qalqilya on August 29, 2007, soldiers destroyed seven housing units and forced male residents of the neighborhood to strip in front of their families and neighbors – one of whom captured the incident on tape.'
According to B'Tselem, the conduct of the IDF soldiers constituted a "flagrant" breach of at least one article of the Fourth Geneva Convention.
One victim recalls:
"During the evacuation, one of the soldiers in the jeep called out on to me on a loudspeaker to take off all my clothes and turn around in front of the soldiers to make sure that I wasn't carrying anything... I asked the soldiers to let me keep my underpants on, but they insisted. I had to lower my underpants in front of my daughters and women from the neighborhood. I felt deeply insulted and it offended my dignity. What they did was beastly, arbitrary, and immoral. It was also disgraceful, this by soldiers who claim they maintain law and order and are humane. After I lowered my underpants, the soldiers allowed my son and I to put them back on."
After the soldiers emptied the houses of their residents, bulldozers began to demolish houses in the neighbourhood. In total seven houses, home to 48 people including 17 children, were destroyed. 'None of the occupants were allowed to remove anything from the houses before they were demolished.' In the end it was discovered that the soldiers were acting on false information - no "wanted" people were discovered.
Incidentally, the dialogue between the camera man and his child is instructive for those who are concerned about Palestinian anti-Semitism. When Jewish soldiers treat Palestinians like this in the name of the Jewish State, it doesn't take much imagination to see how hatred for Israel can spill over into hatred of Jews. People who are serious about combating Palestinian anti-Semitism, as opposed to those who merely use it as a tool to distract from and justify Israeli crimes, will thus focus their efforts on ending the occupation.
Stoning Neighbors - Hebron
'In March 2007, a new settlement was established in the a-Ras neighborhood of Hebron. Since its establishment, there has been a noticeable increase in harassment and attacks by settlers and Israeli security forces on the neighborhood’s Palestinian residents. The footage shown here was filed between May and August 2007.'
The establishment of a-Ras settlement has resulted in "extensive" abuse and violence "both from the settlers and from Israeli security forces who have been assigned protect the settlement", as well as increased travel restrictions for Palestinian residents that make their lives "intolerable". More generally, the settler and IDF violence directed towards Palestinian residents of Hebron and the extensive restrictions on movement imposed to protect the Jewish settlements there have turned Hebron into a "ghost town", with nearly half of the Palestinian housing units in the center of Hebron now empty and over 75% of Palestinian businesses in the area closed down. This "quiet transfer", B'Tselem and the Association for Civil Rights in Israel explain, is the result of "a regime intentionally and openly based on the "separation principle"" that makes the "entire Palestinian population pay the price for protecting Israeli settlement in the city."
Finally, this short video from B'Tselem gives a glimpse into the reality of Israel's apartheid regime in the occupied West Bank:
"Israel is not ready for such comparisons [with apartheid], even though the situation begs it. It is doubtful whether it is possible to complain when an outside observer, especially a former U.S. president who is well versed in international affairs, sees in the system of separate roads for Jews and Arabs, the lack of freedom of movement, Israel's control over Palestinian lands and their confiscation, and especially the continued settlement activity, which contravenes all promises Israel made and signed, a matter that cannot be accepted. The interim political situation in the territories has crystallized into a kind of apartheid that has been ongoing for 40 years."
These videos (see here for more) offer only snapshots into the daily brutalities of an occupation that Palestinians have been forced to endure for decades. Even so, they are enough to give the lie to anyone who throws up their hands in faux exasperation and exclaims, "why do the Palestinians keep doing that?"
