"I came to Bilin because when Jews are with Palestinians there is less violence," says Jonathan Sivin as he joins a weekly demonstration against Israel's security fence in Bilin, a West Bank village.
But this day Sivin's words have an ominous echo, coming days after acting premier Ehud Olmert's Kadima party won the Israeli general election on a platform of turning the "barrier" into the Jewish state's eastern border.
Palestinian leaders, who call the barrier "an apartheid fence", have said such a move will only lead to further conflict, and this ragtag band of 300 left-wing Israelis, Palestinian villagers and foreign peace activists agree.
"Olmert means there will be no peace in this land," says demonstrator Yussef Karaja. "I don't know what we can do but we refuse his way. They are killing us without shooting, by lack of food, lack of work, lack of services."
Once completed, the 670-kilometre (415-mile) mix of concrete, steel and razor wire will effectively confiscate eight to 10 percent of Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem.
Some 49,400 Palestinians living in 48 villages will find themselves on the Israeli side of the barrier.
Israel has always maintained that the barrier, much of it snaking east of the 1967 Green Line that is supposed to separate Jewish and Arab states, is for security and not a land grab, despite Palestinian fears of its ultimate goal.
"The sole purpose of the security fence... is security ... and Israel's response to suicide bombers who enter into Israel," a recent UN report on the barrier quoted the military as saying after the plan was dreamt up in 2001.
Israelis continue to be attacked by suicide bombers despite a reduction in attacks since militant factions declared a truce early last year. Such an attack outside a West Bank settlement on Thursday killed four Israelis.
The Hague-based International Court of Justice declared all parts of the barrier beyond the Green Line illegal under international human rights law in 2004, but the verdict is non-binding and has been ignored by Israel.
Now Olmert has vowed to finalise the border by the end of his mandate in 2010, saying that with Islamist faction Hamas in power in the Palestinian territories he has no partner and no hesitation in acting unilaterally.
"If our neighbours continue to miss every opportunity to reach an accord, Israel will take its destiny in hand and unilaterally carve out its identity as a Jewish and democratic state," Olmert wrote on the day of the election. Since its election in January, Hamas has been largely boycotted by the international community as well as by Israel, amid calls for the Islamist faction to renounce violence and recognise the state of Israel.
Swiss protestor Alexandre, 30, says Israeli politicians use security to make voters fearful as well as an excuse to grab Palestinian land.
"Look at the thousands of security forces deployed for the election. That was just to make people afraid," he says, surrounded by people wearing T-shirts emblazoned with "Two states, one future" and "Back to '67 borders".
"Israeli politicians don't want a solution to the conflict; they live from it. The elections don't change anything. The conflict will only end when there is an agreement with the Palestinians."
Demonstrators wave Palestinian flags and chant "The wall must fall" at Israeli police protecting the rapidly developing construction site. Some demonstrators break off olive branches which they wave at the armed police.
"Clear the area this is a military zone," the police say, before telling the protestors "Kadima, kadima" - "Forward, forward."
Flash-bang grenades are fired, some arrests are made and the crowd responds with "Give us our land back".
"The only solution is two-state, but not like this," says Louise, 26, from Tel Aviv. "Israelis should start packing our bags in this area and get rid of the settlements."
"We want the 1967 borders, not to grab land. We're shooting ourselves in the foot. We'll pay for what we're doing to these poor people in the future. This has nothing to do with security."
"The Israelis plan something, we plan something, but it's always different," says Palestinian Waji, as the peaceful demonstrators go back to the village and masked Palestinian youths emerge from the olive groves to throw rocks at police.
"We plan to live together but they plan how to expel us and how to build settlements on our land," he says.
"It's like (the establishment of Israel in) 1948, they expelled Palestinians and demolished our villages. Now they're doing it again."
By now the air is thick with tear gas and the dangerous whisper of flying rocks and rubber bullets, as the recently arrived Red Crescent workers wait to take the inevitable casualties for treatment.
Comments
Comments are closed.