In recent months aggression against Palestinians in the West Bank has been escalated, with a number of serious incidents of Israeli settlers attacking civilians.
“Nonviolence is not sterile passivity, but a powerful moral force which makes for social transformation.” (Martin Luther King Jr.)
A brutal attack
In one such incident, Israeli settlers attacked the West Bank village where Moatasem Odeh lived and he saw saw his son Amir, 28, shot and fatally wounded. Then he was himself beaten unconscious after been stabbed several times.
The brutal attack on 14 March, on the village of Qusra was just one of a large number of attacks in a stream of brutal violence in the West Bank over recent months.
Moatasem Odeh was quoted as saying that villagers might have once driven the attackers away by throwing stones, but that won’t work now as settlers now routinely carry guns. He commented: “We are helpless and they know it.”
The report goes on to say that, “with the world’s attention focused on the US-Israeli war with Iran and its proxies, extremist settlers acting with seeming impunity have intensified their attacks on Palestinians across the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Their campaign of violence and intimidation is emptying out entire villages and leaving countless Palestinians fearing what each nightfall might bring”.
Responding to settler violence
In response to the violence, the Arab-Israeli justice and peace group Standing Together has been stepping up efforts to protect Palestinians in the West Bank and also in East Jerusalem.
On 13 July I was privileged to hear first hand from one of those involved in the protection work, Tamar Giladi, from Israel who spoke about Standing Together’s ‘protective presence ‘ activity in occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank.
This is what Tamar had to say…
Tamar Giladi
Tamar is from Israel and grew up in central Israel but is now living in Jerusalem.
The work in Standing Together in Solidarity Guard takes place all around the West Bank. The operations started last August.
They operate in an area 20 minutes east of Jerusalem. These are rural Palestinian communities and suffer from terrorism from nearby settlements.
Standing Together Protective Presence show their solidarity by being with them and trying to be a barrier between attackers and Palestinians.
The area Tamar works in is fairly calm and other areas are more violent, but her protective presence group is still very much needed
They get a lot of gratitude from the community itself and the need is clear
Tamar joined the Solidarity Guard six months ago, and it has become something very meaningful to do. It is sometimes very sad and then you go back to a safer and better life behind checkpoint and the wall.
But the work is still very empowering
Generally, they operate on a 24/7 basis. There are activists that are there and come weekly and spend nights and days there and they never leave the area without activists. People are so dedicated and the numbers of the Guard are getting bigger and bigger.
Generally, the violence in the West Bank is getting worse but also more and more people are joining Standing Together’s Solidarity Guard.
Because of the type of activism and the fact that there are other humanitarian organisations around and we communicate with them eg organisations are operating as psychological help for protective presence for activists, which all activists can use.
Not long ago there was a conference bringing together Palestinians and Israelis that either work or do protective presence work or are people from villages suffering violence and it was a very interesting conference.
Our best activists are the pensioners with free time! As for getting into dialogue, we do not get into conversation, just talking between ourselves. The Solidarity Guard does not get into dialogue with the army or settlers, so the confrontational event fades quicker and our only aim is de-escalation.
Activists that come back are targeted sometimes as the police and others may photograph them and it may affect their futures of the younger activists.
In a Solidarity Guard session; they visit a number of communities every day, but they operate under great uncertainty. However, they try and have an order with specific tasks at 6 am and then at 10 am settlers might be around, so they always try to be there to protect Palestinians.
All communities have the Solidarity Guard phone numbers, and they show up to where they are needed and they stand physically between Palestinians and attackers and document what they are doing. People don’t like to be documented doing illegal acts.
When dealing with situations with armed settlers, it is tough. Everyone knows they are putting themselves at risk and it gets dangerous in other areas where activists have also suffered from attacks. Their power comes from non-violence and putting a mirror there.
When there is a confrontational situation, they will call the police to come and deal with it. But their tool is standing in complete non-violence support.
The work has a beneficial act as it scares the Settlers and they stop harassing Palestinians.
The hard work of building justice and peace
This is what the relentless hard work of building peace and justice looks like. And if there is to be any fair and lasting solution to the terrible conflict between Israel and the Palestinian people, this may be the only route to take to get there.
It is only through the hard effort of building mutual respect and support for a common humanity that peace accompanied by real justice can be accomplished.
We should all respect and salute the hard and difficult work that Tamar and the other members of Standing Together’s Solidarity Guard are undertaking in East Jerusalem and the West Bank.
To learn more about Standing Together and how you can help them from the UK please see here and here .
