By: Eva (Israel)

Eva (Israel) — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 09:35:49 +0000

Very often I don’t have the time to read articles that are sent to me through mailing lists, as well as to watch videos I hear or read about. This time I took a moment to watch the video about the Atarot/Bir Zeit checkpoint. Probably because I’m sensitive to the issue because I’m volunteering at MachsomWatch as well. Not as often as I would like to, unfortunately, because THIS is really something that can make a difference and can help in some cases – even though we all know that what we’re doing is not more than a drop in the ocean.
From my experience and knowledge of what the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) are actually doing at checkpoints as well as in the West Bank and Gaza at all, I was NOT surprised by what I saw. Yet, something is growing in me when I see and hear about abuses like that: … I don’t know how to call it – someone said the other day that we’ll have to invent new words for all this – so I’d call it “speechlessness”. How can one describe such a scene? Horrible? Awful? Disgusting? Shocking?… I think it’s more than all that: it’s deliberate injustice, deliberate abuse that these soldiers and all other members of the IOF know that they will go unpunished. And the victims – whoever they are and whatever they have to endure – know that they have NO way to defend themselves, no access to justice – none at all. Because in Israel – and I feel that it’s happening more and more, or maybe just stronger or more openly – INJUSTICE is now called JUSTICE and that in any other “normal” place would be called “good” has become “bad” here (like empathy, compassion…) and “bad” has become “good” (like beating up a Palestinian for no reason at all). “Right” has become “wrong” and “wrong” has become “right”. In this sort of mentality literally EVERYTHING becomes possible. I’m scared…

Comments on: Stay Cool: The Children of Gaza and more

By: Eva (Israel)