The Quiet Occupation

[not systems]

http://antiwar.com/hacohen/?articleid=6303

June 15, 2005
The Quiet Occupation - By Ran HaCohen
Part 1

What is the first picture the term "occupation" raises in our mind? Probably some kind of extreme violence among civilians: lethal fire in the middle of town, terrified kids in pajamas watching heavily armed soldiers searching a house, a helicopter firing a missile in the midst of Gaza. All these violent scenes do happen, but they do not give an adequate picture of what the occupation really looks like.

Very few people realize that Israel has turned life in the occupied territories (Israeli settlers excluded) into complete misery without any need to fire a single bullet. A unique, invaluable glance into the mechanisms that constitute this "quiet" occupation, usually hidden behind the literal smokescreen of violence, is given by the first annual report of the Israeli human rights group Machsom Watch, presented in a press conference in Tel Aviv last week.

West Bank Checkpoints: The Basics

Machsom – "roadblock" in Hebrew – stands for a whole arsenal of obstacles spread throughout the occupied territories: temporary or permanent roadblocks, manned checkpoints or roads closed off by heavy cement blocks, gates in the Wall, earth mounds, trenches, observation towers. The least known but most significant fact about these various physical obstacles is that almost all of them are NOT "border checkpoints" located between Israel and the occupied territories; almost all of them are placed WITHIN the occupied territories, hampering the movement from one Palestinian town or village to another.

...

Detention

Even when a checkpoint is open, individuals are exposed to extreme arbitrariness and uncertainty. Having a permit is a necessary condition to pass through the checkpoint, but not a sufficient one. With a hardly noticeable gesture of his or her finger, a 19-year-old soldier may decide your document needs "inspection" and detain you. Such a detention can take 20 minutes; but it can also take several hours, during which you have to wait in the unroofed Jora ("hole" in Arabic, "sewage hole" in Hebrew), where you may be ordered to remain standing, or to sit on the ground facing the wall. If you are a bus driver, all your passengers will have to wait with you. Your document may be sent for inspection immediately; but it may have to wait until 20 or 30 other documents are accumulated and sent together. When it returns with an OK, you may proceed; but some documents often get lost in the process.

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[rwenos]

1. "Occupation" is a Two-Edged Term

On the one hand, it means to most Americans the occupation of Japan and Germany after WW2. That's mostly positive -- GI's dropping Hershey bars from planes on approach to Templehof during the Berlin Airlift, etc.

Unfortunately, it's come to mean an American army, encamped in some Middle Eastern country, suspicious and careful, waiting for politicians to make decisions about grand strategy.

I really feel for our troups. What a dirty job they have! And what a shame they are receiving no support from our bloodthirsty moron of a President.

[not systems]

2. This article is not about the occupation Iraq by the US but...

the occupation of Palestine by Israel.

That said, being camped out in another persons county and
expect to daily function as judge, jury and executioner is
an envious less position for any person to be in.

It is a position that I believe becomes psychologically damaging
to solders and nations.

So I am against occupation in general.

[Igel]

3. Somehow, acts of extreme violence aren't what come to mind

when I think "occupation". I think of occupation as a state, not as the occasional event punctuating that state.

Roadblocks ... sure, they come to mind. But I also don't think that Jews are intentionally and unilaterally cruel, looking to oppress and humiliate people for jollies for no reason. The article doesn't say that; but while reactions can be excessive, I tautologically find reactions to be reactions.

[not systems]

4. I don't know about "Jews" but some IDF members have been cruel...

in my opinion. Undoubtedly others perceive these actions as
justified or the actions of a few bad apples. Not unlike
the variety of opinions that can be found about the Abu Ghraib
photos. To me both are the outcome of people holding others
subordinated under threat of force, occupation.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/gate/archive/2004/12/07/worldviews.DTL

...

First, there was the audio recording that surfaced "of an Israeli officer pumping the body of a 13-year-old girl full of bullets and then saying he would have shot her even if she had been three years old." Then there were "the pictures in an Israeli newspaper of ultra-orthodox soldiers mocking Palestinian corpses by impaling a man's head on a pole and sticking a cigarette in his mouth." (Guardian) And in recent days, conflicting reports have emerged about just what happened when Wissam Tayam, a young Palestinian musician, tried to make a routine crossing of the Israeli-controlled Beit Iba checkpoint near Nablus, in the West Bank, early last month.

A videotape made by a human rights organization that monitors the Israel Defense Forces' treatment of persons making their way through checkpoints between Israeli and occupied Palestinian territories caught what appeared to be IDF personnel forcing Tayam to open his violin case and play his instrument for them before they would let him pass. But an army investigation of the disputed incident refuted that version of events. (Ha'aretz) As a result, the head of the IDF's central command "said ... the soldiers had shown a lack of sensitivity but not a lack of respect, nor did they intend to ridicule Tayam." (Israel Insider)

Tayam, who lives in a West Bank refugee camp, studies music at university in Nablus. He told an Israeli reporter, "They asked me to open the case and show them the instrument, which was fine by me. But then they asked me to play; I did not offer to play." He said the incident made him feel "humiliated" and added, "I always identified with the Jews who suffered in Europe , and after that they come and do the same thing to us." (Ha'aretz) Tayam also pointed out that, had the IDF soldiers feared his violin case might have contained explosives, they would have asked him to step back and play his instrument at a distance, which, apparently, they did not do. (BBC)

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