The IDF has launched a massive search for the suspect and the Israeli public is responding with massive outcries for retaliation. In part of its response, Israel approved 500 new homes to be built in settlements throughout the West Bank, centered mostly around Jerusalem.
Today I went to meet the ladies of Machsom Watch for a trip to the normal checkpoints we monitor outside of the Palestinian cities of Qalqilya, Tulkarm and Nablus. In the interest of trying to convey some of this information in ways that are tangible, I am trying to include google maps here. Not sure what my tech savvy skills will bring, but hopefully you will be able to identify the links and find them useful! So, our first stop was at an agricultural checkpoint outside Qalqilya. This checkpoint tends to be reservist soldiers, and the soldiers are generally fairly friendly and efficient. Today, however, was a hot mess. The soldiers seemed fresh off the boat, were friendly but seemed incredibly confused. Because it is an agricultural checkpoint, all sort of random contraptions were coming through and as you can see in the photo below, today was a bit of mayhem. At one point, a herd of sheep and a school bus were coming through from the Palestinian side and two horses pulling carts, a car, and a number of people on foot and bicycle, were crossing from Israel into Palestine. The photo below demonstrates the insanity:
After we left that checkpoint, we drove to Dayr Sharaf, where I often buy delicious olive oil from a wonderful man named Jamal. (Fun fact, if you type "Dayr Sharaf, Israel" or "Dayr Sharaf, Palestine" into google maps, it takes you to the same place! Even google has complicated feelings about the Occupation). On the drive there, the impact of the killings in Itamar became apparent. There were much, much fewer Palestinian cars out on the road and the IDF presence was everywhere. About every 100 feet or so, we would see an IDF jeep stopped on the side of the road. Sometimes it was setting up a mini, ad-hoc checkpoint, and sometimes they seemed to have just pulled over and been questioning one or two people, and sometimes they were just sitting and waiting. We took a different route than normal because, as it turns out, Jamal's shop is just over the line from Area C to Area A. When we reached Jamal's shop we asked him how the situation had been since the killings in Itamar on Friday night. "I can't believe that a Palestinian would do this," he said. "Who kills a baby?" he asked, raising his hand and miming slitting his throat to convey the point. When I pressed him on how things were for him, he said that Saturday was terrible, no one left the house and soldiers were everywhere, and that he couldn't get to his olive trees, which reach up to the border of a settlement (which, incidentally, destroyed a number of his trees in order to be built a few years ago). Today, he said, was better. An American friend of mine who lives and works in Nablus confirmed this. When I called her today to see if everything was okay, she told me that many of the villages around Nablus had been put under curfew, that some of her coworkers had gotten stuck at a conference in Ramallah, unable to make it back, and that the IDF was everywhere.
The collective punishment mentality of Israeli policy is hard for me to understand. On the one hand, no one has been caught and therefore no one has confirmed that the killer was even Palestinian (although according to al-Jazeera the Al-Aqsa Martyr's Brigade claimed responsibility for the attack, although according to most Palestinians, the Al-Aqsa Martyr's Brigade is somewhat defunct). On the other hand, it might be wrong or racist of me to say, but yes it does seem likely that it was a Palestinian who killed this family. But, al-Jazeera, Ha'aretz, etc are all saying yes, it was a Palestinian attacker, although no one seems to have proof. But, does that give the IDF permission to place villages surrounding Nablus on curfew? To close checkpoints for no reason? To stop every Palestinian who fits the description of Israeli and frankly, American and European descriptions of terrorist - male, dark skinned, ages 16-40? I feel like it doesn't. But, how do you find the person who cowardly broke into a home and stabbed a 3 month old, a 4 year old and a 10 year to death?
After talking with Jamal, and after a failed attempt to buy my favorite delicious but obesity creating dessert, kenafe, we drove back into Israel. We were stopped by the border police, who normally wave Israelis by, and asked for our identification cards. We handed them over, they barely looked at them, and then handed them back to us. We went to the workers' checkpoint near Taibe (not the same as Taybeh, where they manufacture Palestine's greatest beer!). This checkpoint is privatized (think Iraq and Blackwater and then feel sad), and there are strict, strict no photography rules so I cannot share a picture. When we walked up to the gate, there was a crowd of agricultural workers waiting to cross back into Palestine from Israel. The gate, as it turned out was locked. We asked one of the guards what the situation was, and his answer was "closed". "Why is it closed?" we asked. The answer, "Segur, segur, segur. Closed, closed, closed." The ladies of Machsom Watch quickly sprung into action and one called the matak, the commander from the IDF who supervises checkpoints in this region, and the other called the "humanitarian" phone number of the IDF, which each checkpoint has listed on it to call in case of problems. While we were waiting I chatted witha couple of the men who work outside Netanya and were heading home for the day. I'm learning that while saying I'm from New York goes over as more locatable and relatable with Israelis, saying I'm from Michigan turns out to be a way bigger hit with Palestinians because 90% of the time they go, "Oh, Dearborn!" Anyway, this man had heard of Michigan, Dearborn in particular, and he told me that he likes the American people very much, but he does not like the American government. And I agreed. Eventually the matak came, spoke to the guards, and they opened the gate, claiming that there had been a bomb threat and that was the reason they closed the checkpoint.
The ladies dropped me off at the bus station in Tel Aviv and, having gotten back to Tel Aviv before rush hour started, I settled in for a hopefully quick journey back to Jerusalem. Oh contraire. The driver made an announcement which I have learned to understand from the sheirut, which is basically, "We're going through the West Bank, if you're Arab get off the bus." It is rare for this to happen on a bus, and normally on a sheirut I will just get off as well because I am no longer interested in driving on what I am really starting to consider to be apartheid-like roads. However, I was a little confused and also worried about getting back to Jerusalem in time for a meeting so I decided to, as I like to say, opportunity benefit/opportunity cost impact on the Occupation. I decided that me waiting for the next bus and being an hour late to a meeting where we were creating outreach plans for taking American Jews on tours of East Jerusalem was not an effective use of boycotting and stayed on the bus. An I think European man was getting on the bus and did not understand and asked in English why the bus driver wouldn't take him to his stop along the normal route. Finally, a woman responded, "The bus normally goes this way but it is not today because of the disaster." Not sure what event I had missed that would change the route of buses from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, I turned around and asked what happened. "You didn't hear about the disaster?" She asked me, "The murders in Itamar?" I nodded that yes I did hear and decided not to ask why this was changing the route of the bus.
As it turns out, I didn't find out until I got to Jerusalem. Our bus went on highway 443 through the West Bank. The traffic was obnoxiously slow and I could not understand how the killings in Itamar would make Israeli buses want to drive through the West Bank. We reached the checkpoint back into Israel, and there were dozens of cars in front of us. When we got to the checkpoint, the border police got onto the bus, guns in tow, and walked up and down the aisle checking for suspicious looking people. Because of my tendency to want to puke on buses, I was sitting at the front of the bus and while the border police checked the bus, I watched as the passengers from the two Israeli-license plated cars pulled to the side in front of us were told to step out of their car and they each handed over their green Palestinian ID cards before being allowed to go back into their cars.
I was late for the meeting anyway because of the traffic and had to take a cab. Instead of getting in a cab and using a meter, it's often more effective to barter your fare before you get in the cab. I went to two different cabs who each quoted me insanely high prices and said it was because of the traffic. By the time I got to the third cab, he expanded the explanation saying it was because of the traffic, because of the demonstrations, because of the funerals for the family killed in Itamar. The funerals were being held in Jerusalem, and dozens of protesters had taken to the main intersections in attempts to block traffic. As we drove by the protesters, my cab driver pointed out that they were protesting because the government hadn't responded strongly enough in Itamar. I asked what he thought the government should do. He said they needed to attack, to get revenge, and then he raised his arm and mimicked Jamal's movement from earlier in the day, asking the same question, "Who kills a baby?"
In conclusion, let's just say I'm having feelings. I think it is horrible and cold-blooded and cowardly to sneak into a house in the middle of the night and murder a family. I think the settlements are wrong. I think Israelis need to live a life that is secure, a life where buses and cafes aren't blown up, a life like the one they have been living for the past five years. I think Palestinians need to live a life that is secure, where another country's army is not restricting their movement and invading their homes, where citizens from another country cannot set up houses, take their land, and attack them. I feel really, really hopeless about either of these scenarios ever being a sustained, peaceful reality. But here are two compelling and more eloquent pieces that make me feel a little better....http://972mag.com/the-itamar-victimization-dance-is-disgusting/ and http://972mag.com/settlerskilled/
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