Israeli Politics and the Diaspora

The Israeli government is justly proud that through cooperation with the Palestinian authority and other measures they have managed to reduce car thefts by 30% recently. This will no doubt be touted by Bibi Nethanyahu as a prime benefit of his 'Peace and Security' policy. Peace and security should be for everyone, however. It seems that in many cases the peace and security of Israelis is created at the expense of our Palestinian neighbors, a situation that certainly cannot continue for a long time. Aatef Ka'adan, a lawyer in Tulkarm, told the story below, about events that ocurred on April 15, 1999. Note that the 'soldiers' were later identified as Israeli police from Kadum.

"My wife woke me at about 6:00 AM to tell me that my older brother Bassam, who lives in Area B, was on the phone. He said there are many soldiers in the house breaking things and that they also want to gain entrance to the garage, where I have an apiary, as I am a beekeeper as well as a lawyer. I arrived at his house about a half hour later and found a large number of soldiers and police officers in two trucks. As the place is near Sheweika (a known locale for car thefts) they were looking for car thieves. I went with a police officer and saw that they had broken into the garage where I keep the beehives. Thereafter the police did not let me return to the house, so I departed. My brother called after breakfast and told me that the soldiers had given him a good beating and had left at about 8:30. I drove over to see what what had happened. The police had beaten my brother in front of his children, who were so afraid that they lost control of their bodily functions. They put his wife and kids in a room and assigned two policemen to guard them, so his wife could not nurse the baby. They broke into the offices of my brother's plant nursery, broke the telephone and the intercom and all other electrical equipment, including the air conditioner. They broke a memento picture of my father with the comedians Nabil and Hisham. They ruined seeds worth NIS 500,000, and even smashed the Qur'an with a hammer. Finally they went into the separate house where my father had lived and stole $6000.00, upset everything and broke the television."

That is the testimony of Aatef Kaadan. Aatef later reported that after the incident was reported to the police in Kadum, police officers arrived at the scene, apologized for the damage and said that it should never have happened. Indeed, it should not have happened. However, it is not the first time, and one fears that it will not be the last, that Israeli soldiers or border guards act with unwarranted and unnecessary brutality, earning enemies for Israel and perhaps for the cause of peace. Incidents such as these have been going on for many years, and were part of the cause of the Intifadeh. We cannot delude ourselves into thinking that they can be prevented by administrative measures or punishment of the soldiers. It seems that they are an integral part of the occupation. Obviously, we cannot expect that people will submit to such treatment without reacting for very long. The conclusion must be that there can be no real 'Peace and Security' for Israelis or Palestinians as long as the occupation continues.

Ami Isseroff and Amit Leshem
Rehovot and Beit Hanina,
Israel

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