Muna: Hell, yeah. Having two such eloquent and knowledgeable people here in Richmond to break it down in a clear-cut, “Hey, I’ve been there and I’ve seen it,” sort of way brought home the issues and the emotions of the reality of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in a poignant way for both veteran activists and new folks curious about the issue.

Jen: I definitely agree. How often does Richmond get the chance to hear firsthand accounts from someone who has lived with Palestinians for three and a half years and met Yasir Arafat during the April siege of Ramallah? As a Jewish American from New York, Adam Shapiro exemplifies the barrier-smashing selflessness of many internationals working to dissolve the biases of their upbringings and acknowledge and assist the Palestinian struggle.

Muna: Amen. Mark Lance too is inspiring as a person who seemingly has no direct connections to the Israeli occupation of Palestine, but has not only realized that as an American citizen he is complexly and fundamentally involved in the conflict, but also helped to found an organization to address and correct this relationship. As he said in the beginning of his talk, “All of the things you are going to hear about going on in Palestine; all of these things you support. You are paying for the Israeli occupation with your tax dollars, which the U.S. gives to Israel, who turns around and spends it at major corporations, like Caterpillar, General Electric and Lockheed Martin.”

Jen: Mark Lance’s group, SUSTAIN, has a magnificent Web site, which links to the Jewish Library. That group reported that since 1980, the U.S. has given about $66.5 billion in military aid to Israel. That’s a shitload of money!

Muna: With U.S. military aid to Israel averaging $3 billion a year, that’s about $500 per Israeli citizen every year.

Jen: Billions more go to Israel for economic and social spending. I doubt we spend that much money on Afghanistan after we’ve bombed the crap out of them for the last 25 years.

Muna: Good point. I think it especially hit home when Mark showed us the map of South Africa that the apartheid government offered as a compromise to the conflict there. It was full of holes and gave the native African population only pockets of land. Then when Mark showed the map of the so-called generous offer of former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak, the similarities were obvious and devastating. Mark commented, “No one in the world was fooled by the apartheid Africa plan. It could not by any stretch of imagination be called a state.”

Jen: Yeah, the similarities between Palestine and South Africa are striking. Israel colonizes the West Bank and Gaza strip with illegal Zionists settlements that are condemned by international law that are just like the settlements of white farmers in South Africa. The settlements divide the indigenous populations, inhibiting their travel, work, community and survival.

Muna: I think something a lot of people forget, or don’t even realize to begin with, is that the West Bank and Gaza Strip are not part of Israel and Israel has no sovereignty over them. What do you think of a parallel between the occupied territories in Palestine and Puerto Rico? Because when I imagine Apache helicopters and American-made tanks used against Palestinians, I find it as abhorrent and totally morally inexcusable as I would if America were to do that to Puerto Ricans.

Jen: You’re right. We bomb the fuck out of Puerto Rico’s Vieques Island for the sole purpose of training our military, ignoring that the bombing exercises cause severe psychological and environmental damage to the area, not to mention every Puerto Rican is against it. Also, as a territory of the U.S., Puerto Rico has no representation in our government. But the Puerto Ricans are fighting just as fiercely as the Palestinians.

Muna: Not only that, but there was a large uproar when Americans learned of the Vieques bombing, but the American uproar has just begun on behalf of the Palestinians who have lost thousands since the new intifada began two years ago.

Jen: The Palestinians are fighting with all they got. Since the international uproar happened, people from all over the world are traveling to Palestine in solidarity to help in their resistance. When the ISM was founded in 2001, and issued the call for international assistance that August, Adam Shapiro said he thought it was crazy.

Muna: Yeah, I remember at the talk asking, “Who would come?” and explaining that at the time the situation on the ground was so bad that international NGO’s were sending their workers home. But in the first month 30 internationals showed up in Palestine and more followed. They removed roadblocks that kept water and ambulances from getting to villages with their own hands so that Israeli soldiers had no excuse to fire upon and say they had weapons, like shovels. The use of non-violence is essential and only effective as a tactic when internationals are present because the Israelis don’t care about killing Palestinians, even if they’re non-violent.

Jen: Many of my pro-Israeli friends argue that Palestinians would achieve more sympathy if they practiced non-violence. They don’t realize that most of the people are acting non-violently everyday. Adam said that while they don’t have a main leader embodying non-violence, that it isn’t necessary. He said, “We don’t have one person like Gandhi. Instead we have hundreds of leaders spread throughout every camp and every town.”

Muna: The story of Nablus he told was incredibly touching. Here this town had been under 24 hour curfew for over 80 days, basically no leaving your house ever, except for a couple hours every few weeks to buy groceries (if there are any), and even then there’s still a chance of being shot by Israeli soldiers. Adam said the mayor of Nablus courageously and without precedent managed to get on local television and order his people to break curfew together. He said the pharmacies would be open and even went so far as to say that students would have to sit for their tests the next day. The entire town was out in the streets the following day. A couple of people were shot and killed by Israeli soldiers but the army retreated from the city center, instead simply surrounding it. This lasted for three days, until the Israeli army cracked down, and cracked down hard. But by that point Nablus had made international news and the world had seen how bravely and most importantly, non-violently, the people had resisted.

Jen: The ISM contributed greatly to this movement.

Muna: Yes, for weeks previous to the city breaking the curfew, the ISM helped organize small marches every Friday to test the waters of the curfew. They began with only 50 people during the first march, by the next march they had 150 people and by the Friday before the mass curfew resistance, there were 200 people in the streets. The people of Nablus later attributed their willingness to come out to the fact that they knew if internationals and Palestinians were acting together that they would not only be protected in their non-violent stance, but the world was much more likely to pay attention to the heroic act.

Jen: Adam said the Nablus people felt empowered by the international presence and solidarity. I appreciated Adam’s story about the Israeli invasion of Tulkarem. When the soldiers infiltrated the town, they gunned down a lot of Palestinians defending their homes. The Israeli forces wouldn’t allow ambulances or any medical assistance to get to people bleeding to death in the streets. Adam said, “The women refused to sit in their homes and let this happen.” So the women of Tulkarem called each other on their telephones and went out into the streets, removed their hijabs, waving them as civilians so soldiers wouldn’t shoot. They hand-carried the wounded men to the hospitals themselves. Their resistance is truly inspiring. But the media attention has gone away and the atrocities against the Palestinians remain. Now, the olive harvest that Palestinians depend on for their livelihoods is threatened. Mark Lance said Caterpillar bulldozers were used to uproot 830,000 olive trees the last two years.

Muna: Errr... it makes me so frustrated to realize how many ways just as an American citizen I am involved in this occupation. It gives me hope that organizations like ISM and SUSTAIN exist for Americans to get involved with. With the olive harvest, which could potentially bring in 250 hard-earned and desperately needed dollars to the Palestinian people, ISM is again issuing the call for internationals to come and protect Palestinians just trying to get to their groves and harvest their olives.

Jen: Olives have sustained Palestinians for centuries. It enrages me that their groves are destroyed and that Israeli settlers shoot farmers. These settlers are financially subsidized by the Israeli government, which is funded by our tax dollars. Mark said, “Without U.S. funding and diplomatic support, none of this could go on.” But the Palestinian struggle is endemic to the rest of the world victimized by U.S. and Western imperialism.

Muna: It is foreboding to hear Mark speak about the lesson of Israel—“You can’t protect yourself against people who are so desperate that they will kill themselves to fight you”—but more hopefully, it’s inspiring to hear him speak of the global intifada, the world uniting in its different struggles for justice for all.

Jen: Amen. I have to go to work now and finish drinking my tea.

Muna: I just want to say that it was a great ending to the night and a tribute to the power of the event in that at the very end a young man raised his hand and asked very simply, “How can I work with your groups and how can I go to Palestine?”

For more online information about SUSTAIN, please visit:
www.sustaincampaign.org

For more online information about ISM, please visit:
www.palsolidarity.org