Visions of division from the Holy Land

As promised to some, feared by most and imposed onto unaware others, here's some stories from the borders of humanity.

I have divided the memoirs of my last trip to Israel and Palestine into short stories for my beloved reader's comfort: you can pick one every night before going to bed.

I hope you do not enjoy reading but instead feel pain and anguish so that maybe you'll decide to start moving your lazy ass and do something, whatever that may be. (And yes, I do joke about religions a lot. I am almost sure God doesn't mind much and will laugh along). (And also, we could not enter Gaza, so no reports on that. But that's easy: it is a prison for 1.5 million people, the biggest jail in the Universe)

bisous
Mirco

p.s. harsh comments, outright offences, signs of affection, lamentations of any nature, all are welcome.



Visions of divisions from the Holy Land

I recently went to the Holy Wally Land, a place full of divinities and walls but with very little humanity. I came back and I am really pissed.

I am pissed mainly with God who seems absolutely incapable of keeping its ranks in order. And you would not expect that from someone who is almighty. Jews killing muslims, muslims killing jews, christians killing and being killed, randomly. While everyone unanimously hate the orthodox greeks. And apparently this has been going on for centuries.
The funny thing is that they all claim they are acting on behalf of the same unreachable Dude in the sky. God should make a decision once and for all. Which one is the real chosen people? Please tell us clearly so that we can mercilessly exterminate all the others. It would save us time and resources.

But I am also very very pissed with the Israeli government. Now, when you raise any criticism against the Israeli government you always have to excuse yourself first. And that's because otherwise they call you anti-semite, they compare you with the nazis and they say you are a terrorists-lover.

So hear me out now as I am not going to repeat this over and over again, alright? I do not give a celestial damn about what invisible superpower you wish to adore or what silly dietary instructions you follow, you are free to do as you prefer and I will love you all the same.
However, according to me, if you violate human rights, oppress and brutalize your neighbor, you do all this in your own capacity and not on behalf of some supreme being. And you belong to a very specific, cross-religion, cross-race and cross-culture group of people: the bastards. Then, if you still think that I am anti-semite you are also a stupid ignorant fatass: Palestinians are semite too.

As for the terrorists-lover assumption, it is easy to disregard this as non-sense: no killing of civilians is ever justified. Problem is, in the nowadays asymmetric warfare is often difficult to tell where the line is between terrorists and non-terrorists. Unless you want to weigh human lives differently like George W. Bush used to do. But he was an idiot. Let us conclude that violence, regardless of how you define it, won't take us anywhere. Full stop.

The Israeli government and the Israeli army should stop hiding behind the jewish façade for two reasons: first because no religion ever prescribed the scientific destruction of the Palestinian people that the Israeli government is carrying out. Every time the Israeli government claim their jewish nature as the driving force behind their actions they are literally pissing on the millennia of history of the jewish people, on their outstanding passion for culture and education, on their extraordinary resilience against any sort of oppression, on the priceless contribution that the jewish people provided to humanity. They are pissing on Woody Allen, Lev Trotzkj and Jon Stewart, ok? And I don't like that.
Second, because if one day it turns out that there actually is a God, for the Israeli government it will mean a whole lot of troubles.

Right, enough with the excuses.

Ah and let me dispel one last misconception: Israel says some Palestinians parties, like Hamas, do not recognize the State of Israel, hence they are not reliable peace partners. Cool. But does Israel recognize Palestine? Do you want to try something funny: go to the Ben Gurion Airport and when they question you at the passport check utter these innocent words: "Hello folks, how you doing? I am here to visit Palestine". Then you'll see how much more respectfully Israel recognizes Palestine.

Prologue

In the West Bank, which according to the UN resolutions form part of the Palestinian State, there are nearly 300.000 illegal Israeli settlers who have taken over by force the Palestinian lands. Israel has built roads which cut through the entire West Bank to link the settlements and they have prohibited the Palestinians to use these roads. In addition Israel has also built a 11 meters-high concrete wall which is supposed to separate Israel from Palestine but in reality it swallows up large chunks of the Palestinian lands, encircles entire Palestinian cities making them look like open-air prisons and tries to incorporate into Israel the city of Jerusalem which should be the shared capital of the two states according to international law.
The result is that now the West Bank looks a lot like the back of a leopard with the black dots being isolated palestinian villages and towns in the midst of a network of Israeli roads and illegal settlements.

Some Israeli settlers consider themselves the "chosen people" and they think that land is theirs because God gave it to them. Problem is, none remember having participated in the decision-making process which lead to the nomination of these settlers as the "chosen" dudes. Moreover God's map with the exact location of the promised land got lost millennia ago. Not knowing what God would want, for the time being we have the fourth Geneva Convention which says that "an occupier may not transfer parts of its own civilian population into occupied territory (Art.49)". Clear enough?

Also, illegal settlers are often bastards. You think I exaggerate, then take this:

Children of Men

Palestinian kids are like all kids. They are a lot smaller than grown up people for some reason, a lot weaker and a lot cuter. They also go to school every morning. Or at least they try.

We have visited a small palestinian village in the west bank which is surrounded by two brand new shining illegal Israeli settlements. The village has a school where children from a nearby village come to learn every day. To reach the school the little ones have always been walking up and down the hill that separate the two villages. Well, easy right? Not so much if you consider that the illegal Israeli settlers since their arrival took the habit of attacking, I mean physically attacking, the palestinian children on their way to school. The thing went on unnoticed for a while despite the protests of the palestinians parents, who because of their crooked religion actually love their children and would even like to have them back home safe after school.

One day a 8 years-old girl was kidnapped by the settlers, taken inside the settlement, brutally beaten up and then kindly given back. The little girl had to submit to a facial reconstruction surgery.

International NGOs arrived to escort the kids to school. The settlers started attacking the international volunteers too who eventually managed to take some of these bastards to court. The Israeli military court of course did not condemn the settlers, why should it? Palestinian kids are not chosen kids, are they? However, and paradoxically enough, the Israeli military court stated that the Israeli army would from now on be in charge of ensuring the safety of the kids!

So we have witnessed the surreal event: a bunch of school boys and girls running and jumping, crawling and rolling up the hill with a military patrol jeep behind. Of course the Israeli army is the least reassuring army you would like to have your kids escorted by, so the NGOs are still there to prevent any abuse and to help these kids forget the atrocious reality. One international volunteer we met was from my hometown, it's amazing how many kids-loving extremists can one small town in the north of Italy give birth to.

You may say that this village and these settlers are a sad exception. Well, they are not. The Christian Peace Movement, the Rabbis for Human Rights and other NGOs walk palestinian kids to school in several villages all across the West Bank, everyday.

Watergates

A big difference I have noticed between Israeli illegal settlers and Palestinians is that while the chosen dudes need water to live the Palestinians can easily do without. Palestinians do not drink water. How would you explain otherwise the fact that since 1967 in the Jordan Valley 6.000 thousands illegal Israeli settlers have taken control of ALL water sources while 55.000 Palestinians, who used to own these sources, do not have any water anymore? How would you otherwise explain that palestinians have virtually no current water in the Jordan Valley? How would explain otherwise the fact that one cubic meter of water costs 1 shekel for the settlers and 60 shekels for the Palestinians, which also have to go and collect the water tank from the Israeli distributors?

It must be because the palestinians can live and cultivate their fields also without water. I cannot imagine that the chosen people who, let's not forget, are there on behalf of the almighty would prevent other humans from accessing water, this would be inhuman, right? this cannot be what God have told them to do in the promise land, right? water is life, water is everything, they cannot deliberately deprive 55.000 people of their water. It can't be! or can they?

They can. The Jordan Vally is probably the most absurd place on Earth. Israeli settlers and Palestinians live side by side (but literally side by side) in what is a very fertile and water-rich land. The chosen winners have extensive cultivation of palms, oranges, dates, ext. The chosen losers have to buy every drop of water from the Israeli settlers at impossibly high costs, hence they can barely cultivate anything.

It is a very holy view the one we admired in the Jordan Vally: green and prosperous fields with beautiful houses next to a bunch of palestinian shacks with a few dying olive trees. Ah, they live in shacks not much because they like them but because the Israeli army has declared the Jordan Valley a military zone where building houses is not allowed unless of course you get a permit. Surprisingly enough the illegal israeli settlers always have permits while the Palestinians they never get any. This is one of the privileges of being among the chosen ones.

But in the end, even if the Palestinians managed to cultivate something, they could not export. It is forbidden by the Israeli army. Ahah in your face!

International volunteers are there to help Palestinians build houses, against Israeli military orders; to dig wells to get water against Israeli military orders; to cultivate confiscated fields against Israeli military orders. Every now and again the tanks and the bulldozers come and undo everything. But palestinians and their friends are stubborn and start again and again.

Intermezzo: Mani the Prophet of Light

There is the need to specify a little something here. The World is not divided into black and white. Mani was a cool guy but that "dualism" thing never really convinced me.

Israeli settlers in the West Bank are not all bad people. We have to remember that most of these people have a very limited understanding of what is going on around them. True, some settlers are there because they are extremely sure that God had meant them to live there. But you should always be wary of "extremely sure" people.
Other settlers are poor immigrants coming from developing countries into Israel. The Israeli government to populate the settlements give fiscal advantages and free housing to those ready to live in the settlements, hence are often the last of the leasts who end up living as illegal settlers in the West Bank. And incidentally they are also those who knows the least about the all mess.

At the same time not all Palestinians are lovable left-wing liberal thinkers like me. Some of them believe that God will come and "kick the jews out". Some of them are fiercely against any process of "normalization" of the relations with the Israelis.
In other words, Palestine and Israel is a place where stubborn people like to meet.

Fortunately there are also several associations of reasonable Israelis and Palestinians trying to work together for a better future. And that gives me hope.

Follow the Shepherd

The safety of the most militarized State on the planet depends on the extent to which Israel will manage to stop the breeding of Palestinian bloodthirsty goats shepherds and ruthless orange trees cultivators.

This is why God has told the chosen people, i.e. the illegal israeli settlers, to attack brutally Palestinian farmers. Especially the dangerous-looking one guy we have met on our way to Nablus. This stubborn agricultural extremist insists in cultivating its small field because according to his silly religion belief his wife and kids need to eat. The problem is that the chosen dudes have received a draft of the divine plan in which his small farm does not figure, hence it must be destroyed.

We are talking about a person who lives with his wife and 5 children isolated in the countryside with literally ten orange trees, a few fig trees, a donkey-powered plow and some lemon plants. He is definitely a threat for Israel security.

Settlers came and burned his house. He made himself a new one and the chosen bastards destroyed it with a bulldozer. The Israeli army came in and of course like in the best action movies they arrested the bad guys, that is, two of the farmer's children. They are now in "administrative detention" in the Israeli prison. This means no accusation is raised against them however they may be detained for a period of six months, renewable (ah the beauty of a military occupied territory). The farmer sleeps now with his family in what used to be the shelter of the donkey, together with the donkey of course because otherwise the settlers would come at night and kill it.

Being a shepherd in Palestine is no less a crime than being a farmer in the eyes of the chosen ones. That's why international volunteers have to go everyday in the fields with the palestinian and their goats. But not to write bucolic poems as it used to be, rather to avoid that the bastards attack the shepherds. The goats however are more difficult to monitor. The God of the goats never taught them to distinguish between poisoned and non-poisoned feed so they die in big numbers and they go to the goats paradise, a beautiful green garden with very very few illegal settlers.

We have met a young italian volunteer from Recanati, a city of great poets, who helps the palestinian farmers harvest the olives. Ah did I say God is against olive trees? No, well, now you know it. So this is why the chosen bastards attack the palestinians who try to collect their olives. International volunteers together with Israeli peace-activists go with the palestinians in the olive fields and get beaten up and shot by the settlers. If they are lucky. If they are not lucky they get tear-gassed, shot and arrested by the Israeli army. Countless of olive trees have been destroyed by Israeli illegal settlers or by the army because olive trees never learned to run away fast enough, losers.

The House of the Rising Sun

One of the most horrible form of palestinian terrorism is housing. They build houses, they sleep inside houses, they eat inside houses, they even make love inside houses. As if they were normal people. This unacceptable behavior is taken good care of by the Israeli army.

Say you have a house for you and your family. Say you would like to live in it and possibly die in it. Well the Israeli army will make sure this happens, it will kill you and your entire family by tearing your house down with a bulldozer. While you are inside. Happy now?

This is what happened to a family of seven, father, mother and five children in Nablus in 2003. We have seen the house which has now been rebuilt by the citizens in their memory. The Israeli army had ordered a curfew in the city of Nablus, none could go out of their homes. They came in with bulldozers to pave the way for the tanks, Nablus' streets are ancient therefore are very narrow.
The family heard the bulldozer approaching their house, the father went to the door and opened it to escape but Israeli snipers started shooting at them. So they stayed inside. And hoped. Maybe they prayed as well. In vain. What God needs is large streets for tanks and God always get what it wants.

Do you know where Jesus was born?

Exactly, it's Bethlehem. Some say the guy is the messiah, some say he is not, he is just a naughty boy. Others think, regardless of his divine status, that the chap was someone with a lot of good ideas. And we know for a fact that God loves those who have good ideas.

2000 or so years after baby Jesus came into the world, in Bethlehem Palestinians live, love and die surrounded by the Wall of Shame. The Wall of Shame is this very moronic idea that the Israeli government had to violate once more any possible human as well as divine law. They claim it is a security fence, not a wall. However it damn looks like a fucking wall to me. And it is at best a collective punishment and at worst an horrible instrument of segregation. Collective punishments are prohibited by the fourth Geneva Convention, by the way. Ah really? Well who cares.

Palestinian workers in Bethlehem line up every morning at 4 in front of the Wall of Shame to pass through, get to the other side in Jerusalem and have a joyful day of badly paid work.

Fun! I want to do it as well! And so we did.

At 4 we called a taxi and went to the wall gate. All Palestinians need to take taxis to go to the wall because Palestinian cars cannot cross the gate, Palestinians can only cross walking.

First point of control, there's a lady with dark skin and a sort of jamaican-looking haircut. She has big shotgun, she sits behind a bullet-proof glass and she looks evil. I learn from an international volunteer from a Christian NGO who's always there to monitor the abuses (at 4 o'clock in the bloody morning! respect!!) that the lady with the shotgun and the dreadlocks will never touch ME but if I take pictures or cause any other fuss she'll take her revenge on the Palestinian workers trying to cross. She'll stop them, harass them and so on.

Pictures will have to be taken carefully from now on.

Do you know what a check point looks like? our idea of a check point is that of a grumpy man searching for shampoo in our luggage at the airport. Because shampoo can kill.

Well forget it, Israeli check points are serious stuff. You go through a first metal gate (the one with the evil-looking jamaican-israeli soldier); you enter in a big military hangar; you have a metal net running over your head all across the hangar; on the metal net fully-armed soldiers walk and look down at you. Yes that's right, you have a soldier marching on your head, sweet uh? You go through a metal detector, if something goes wrong there, they'll search you. And you really wish the grumpy man of the airport was with you now.

Done with the metal detector you have your hands' palms scanned, the PC in front of the sleepy-looking soldier will tell him many things: your name, your age, your status. If you are not above 35 and married, you cannot go through. That's the rule, man, if you don't like it you can make your own holy land somewhere else, alright?

If you pass all the checks, you can go to other side and start your poorly paid job, in construction or farming, mostly for Israeli companies. If you cause any trouble, if there's anything wrong with you, if they don't like your face, you stay where you are and you shut the hell up, ok?

What is and what should no longer be

So in conclusions, Israelis have made themselves the "industrial reserve army" that Marx always had nightmares about. They keep hundreds of thousands of low-skilled workers behind a wall and they let them move under strict conditions and abusive controls only to employ them as cheap labour in the Israeli industry. If they complain, if they rebel, if they protest, they tear down their homes, destroy their fields and imprison their children. And they wipe their asses with the Geneva Convention. AWESOME.

This is beyond the imagination of any futurist fiction writer. You cannot believe this brutality can actually be happening now, in 2012, in what is the center of so many religion and philosophic traditions, perpetrated by what is considered as a democratic State. A striking consideration is that Israel is not even internationally condemned for what it does. It is actually praised by many. Other Governments, other armies commit or have committed atrocities around the world. Normally they are despised by everybody. It is true that maybe because of some vested interest, none intervenes, no blue helmets, no peace forces, nothing. But at least theoretically everybody is unanimously opposed to them. Think of Zimbabwe or North Korea for instance, or what used to happen in Rwanda or Timor Leste.

Israel is different. Few Governments dare to speak up loudly against it. Thanks to the "security" rhetoric it is allowed to commit any sort of crime, unpunished, unchallenged, unstoppable. More than sixty years have gone by without any evident step towards a peaceful resolution. The occupation continues, Israeli settlements are growing inside the Palestinian territories, the Wall is going to cut off more and more Palestinians from their families and lands.

No Palestinian State can possibly be built in such a situation.

A collective punishment is imposed on more than 4 millions of Palestinians and it is justified by the need to ensure the security of Israel. Right, but what about the security of the Palestinians? aren't they entitled to have any? What about their freedom? Their future?

The future. The future of these two peoples is however ultimately interlinked. Someday somehow they will have to learn to live side by side in peace. Otherwise it will be the destruction of both. The physical destruction of the Palestinians and the moral and psychological destruction of the Israelis trapped in their siege mentality and suffering from an ever growing detachment from any form of human sympathy for their neighbors.

My chosen people

Two young men, one Palestinian and one Israeli, in two separate circumstances told us the same thing: we don't really care how many States we have, one for both or two. What we want is the recognition of basic human rights for everybody, the end of the military occupation and a peaceful coexistence.

I give these two my vote, I want them to be the next "chosen people" to rule on that land.