A state of terror

RAMALLAH – Nada Mozaffar

January 2003

“If they come, would you shoot them dad?” Ofer Atam, 6, asked his father David, who escorted him to the Swings Park in the settlement of Shilo.

“Of course I would son. Hashem gave us the land in Israel in Judea and Samaria and everywhere and the Arab mekheblim (Hebrew for terrorists) came and occupied the land of our ancestors and now they are trying to occupy it again,” David told a listening and obedient son.

Whether the little kid can shoot some Arabs, the father asserted that if Ofer eats well, he would grow up and his father would take him to shoot some mekheblim.

But the kid’s curiosity never ended. “What if they shoot my little sister Lea?”

In a lecturing manner, David told his youngster that if he stayed armed and on the guard, the Arabs can never kill Lea. “Do I have to carry a rifle all my life then?”

The last question puzzled the Haredi David who was born in one of the many yeshivas scattered around the country and raised there. He has been raised to defend the homeland of his nation. Perhaps he never thought whether he would ever be able to live in a country without holding his M-16 rifle.

Israeli settlers, all who are armed and organized into militias to support Ha Mishtara (Police), are divided into two kinds: Those who endorse the Zionist ideology and go out to settle in Palestinian land as part of their religious mission and others – Jews and Jewish converts mostly Russian Greek Orthodox – who left their countries worldwide in search for a better life.

The first group settles in deserted lands in what is known as illegal outposts. Once residents of such outposts become considerable, they lobby among government official to acquire an official recognition of their settlement.

As a matter of policy, the Israeli government has funneled funds on settlement, which it acknowledged under the pretext that these “villages” are on the borderline with Palestinian territories and should be reimbursed for risking their lives and living on the edge.

This violent group occasionally organizes raids of nearby Palestinian villages, shoot at Palestinian civilian “terrorists” and burn houses and olive trees.

The second group comes to already established settlement, often through settlement plans of the Jewish Agency and the Housing and Infrastructure Ministry. It does not take time before these settlers either try to move to safer metropolitan cities or ponder taking off back home.

But while they live in settlements, settlers of both groups realize the risk they are embarking on by living in an area where despite tight police and army security measures, Palestinian fighters can still infiltrate through and raid these settlements.

“I’m sick and tired of this life. I feel we’re all army and should be on the guard all the time,” said Gilead Etam, a resident of Sharon. “We’re always living in a state of terror and we take out our anger at peaceful Palestinian villages.”

According to Etam, no one can see such a number of armed settlers and feel ok about it. “Even if we’re not under attacks, the scene of all these Israeli carrying their rifles day and night is scary,” he said. “You never know when a rifle goes off by mistake or someone shoots during a quarrel. It looks like living in a Hollywood Western movie.”

When asked who to blame for this state of anxiety he was living in, Gilead said that naturally “it was the Palestinians who keep us on the guard.”

But Gilead said that someone has started all of this. “I don’t think those Palestinians who’ve never been out of say Hebron since 1900 are responsible for our invasion of their lands.”

Gilead is usually afraid to voice what he describes as “his logical explanation” of the ongoing terror between the Israelis and the Palestinians. “They would proclaim me anathema. If I argue in favor of Palestinians, it’ll be like swearing and cursing God and they will start treating me like an outcast.”

Nathan Markovich, also a settler of Sharon and member of the Shalom Akhshav (Peace Now) organization, said that when negotiations between two parties fail, you should blame the stronger party.

“If a well-endowed and muscular man hit a hopeless boy to death, no one would say that the muscular man was right. Everyone would support the weak boy and demand that the issue be solved through dialogue,” he said.

“Save for we, Israelis. We have one of the most powerful armies, and still pretend we’re been the victim of unarmed Palestinians.”

Most Palestinians agree with Nathan’s argument, however. “They are always on guard, even if nothing happens to them, they raid our villages,” said Kamel Hajj Ali, a resident of Jenin.

“They lie to themselves, terrorize their own selves and tell each other that they are living in a state of terror due to Palestinians.”

Huda, Kamel’s wife, told Alternative that the Israelis are so perplexed that they never differentiate in their raids. “My 17-year-old son was walking in the street when a bunch of settlers beat him hard saying: Take your parents and leave, this is our land.”

The Hajj Ali family, living a well-off life, still keeps land registry and documents that prove their ownership of lands that have either been taken by settlers, or as part of the under-construction Apartheid Separation Wall.

“The conflict would never end. Israeli do not fear mighty Palestinian fighters. On the contrary, they fear a demographic fear with Palestinians,” said Khamis Salha, a Political Studies student at the Bir Zeit University.

“They know they don’t have a case, and their numbers would not increase as they suppose and that if peace comes, they might be assimilated,” he said.

“Until then, we will have to suffer their injustice and they have to live of fear and anxiety that has not been the product of Palestinians, but the outcome of their own unfair Zionist ideology,” he added.

“Those who fear ghosts would end up imagining they actually saw ones.

“This is the Israeli situation. They bully everyone and pretend they’ve been the victims of terrorism,” Khamis told Alternative, saying that the conflict would certainly, sooner or later, come to an end. “Justice will prevail,” said Kahmis.