Arab wall of silence surrounds the fence
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/449747.html
By Yair Ettinger



Last Monday afternoon, the third day of protests, the sun beat mercilessly
down on the tent in the A-Ram neighborhood of north Jerusalem. Under the
burning yellow oilcloth, adjacent to the A-Razi Cultural Center, sat dozens
of activists and their visitors. Some of them wore armbands that read
"hunger strike" in Arabic. The high-pitched strains of Palestinian
nationalist songs filled the heavy air.



Without much effort, the hunger strike and anti-separation fence protest
tent organized by MK Azmi Bishara, leader of Balad (National Democratic
Alliance), took off and attracted a great deal of attention. Fatah members,
representatives of the Palestinian parliament, members of the A-Ram local
council and Israeli leftists joined the protesters.

Hundreds came to meet them, among them Arabs from the central Israeli Arab
towns of the Triangle, Baka al-Garbiyeh, Taibeh, and Tira. To the chagrin
of the organizers, a delegation of students from the anti-Zionist Neturei
Karta Yeshiva also showed up, and sat in the tent with a large sign that
read "stop the Nazi ghetto wall."

The Palestinian and world media covered the protest extensively - the
Israeli Knesset member nourished only with mineral water and salt, was
perceived as a hero. "Give them a hand," he beamed, referring to a group of
children from a summer camp in the Palestinian village of Anata standing in
line to greet him.

"I won't stop. This is serious," Bishara declared. "I am going all the
way." His goal is neither to spur on what he calls the "toppling of the
apartheid being fostered in the country," nor to stop the building of the
fence.

"The goal is to bring pressure on the Israeli government from the world and
from Israeli society, to move the people in Jerusalem, to balance the
weight of Prime Minister [Ariel] Sharon. The whole world is dealing with
the question if he is leaving Gaza or not, but the main thing is happening
here, division and separation."

In the period between the High Court of Justice ruling on the routing of
the fence and the ruling of the International Court of Justice in The Hague
on the entire project, the fence has once again become a hot
political-media issue. But Jamal Jum'ah, the coordinator of the Palestinian
campaign "against the apartheid fence" and one of some 25 people who joined
the hunger strike during the week, has become convinced that the anti-fence
protest tent in A-Ram is not a case of an Arab political movement from
Israel has been drafted into the efforts against the fence on a one-time
basis.

"We have noticed recently that there is much more interest among the Arab
Israeli community in solidarity activities with us. People are asking what
they can do," he said. "From now, matters will start to move ahead. People
will begin to recognize that the fence hurts the on-going relations and
culture of Palestinians on both sides of the fence, as one people.

No-show demos

There is no denying that relations between Israeli Arabs and Palestinians
are at a critical juncture, largely because of the fence. This is one of
the reasons that Arab lawyers from Israel are leading the legal team
fighting against the fence and that a number of Arab Knesset members, like
Mohammed Barakeh and Ahmed Tibi (Hadash-Ta'al), are regular fixtures at
anti-fence demonstrations. But strangely, while Arab MKs are commenting to
the media, joining the hunger strike and submitting no-confidence motion in
the cabinet after the Hague court ruling, from the Israeli Arab street the
fence appears mainly a Palestinian problem. It has been standing tall in
Wadi Ara for a year already, shaking the regional economy and family ties -
but apart from two small demonstrations in Baka al-Garbiyeh in February, no
Arab demonstrations, petitions or protests were initiated.

"The most amazing thing is that people in the Wadi Ara villages did not
protest," an Arab MK noted sadly. "It was very difficult to get people to
come out against the fence," he admitted.

Jewish and Arab activists in the anti-fence protest movement are critical
of the Arab political movements. "We expect them (the Arab communities in
Israel) to be much better organized," said Jum'ah. "There should be more
campaigns to raise awareness, groups should come here and start touring the
wall, let them see the situation, let them express solidarity."

Hulud Badawi, a field researcher for the ACRI (Association of Civil Rights
in Israel) estimates the number of Israeli Arab anti-fence activists at no
more than 100. Many of them, like her, are identified with the Arab parties
and join in activities of Palestinian organizations or Israeli leftist
groups - Arab Jewish groups like "Anarchists against the Fence,"
"Ta'ayush," (Israeli Arabs and Jews for Coexistence and Partnership), and
the Women's Coalition for Peace.

"But the Palestinians from the territories are deeply disappointed that
Palestinians from Israel are not fighting together with them against the
wrong being done them," says Badawi. "This [disappointment] does not stem
from a feeling of abandonment, but from the realization that the fence will
have implications for the Palestinians of Israel, that it is designing a
new history for the entire Palestinian people, a second naqbah - the
Palestinian name for the establishment of Israel. They are still waiting.
We activists are much appreciated. When I come to a demonstration and say
I'm from Nazareth, I always get such a smile, a smile of hope. People want
to see more and more."

There is more than one answer to the question as to why protest among
Israel's Arab population is weak and hesitant, or in fact non-existent: a
leadership crisis in Arab society, and comatose political activism in
general, the sense of despair and apathy, and resistance of many Israeli
Arabs, since the events of October 2000, to going out to demonstrate or
express a nationalist stand.

"The main problem is the consensus in Israeli society, both on the left and
the right, about the fence," explains MK Ahmed Tibi. "Anyone who is
disconnected from Palestinian suffering over the fence is being dragged
along behind the idea the Israelis are being stuffed with, including
Israeli Arabs, that the fence is a magic solution that will being about an
end to the conflict. This is false magic, it's an illusion, and some of the
Israeli Arabs have fallen for it."

It is interesting that there is no place for supporters of the fence in
open political dialogue. "The separation fence is racist," "the apartheid
wall, " and "the second naqbah" are terms seen often seen on the manifestos
of the Higher Arab Monitoring Committee, political bureau and in newspaper
articles that were published before and after the Hague ruling. These
strong words are more than lip service. All through the intifada, Israeli
Arabs have witnessed the suffering of their brothers east of the Green Line
and felt their pain.

This sense of solidarity is explained by some using the model of the Jews
of the Diaspora and the Jews in Israel. If Jews living far from Israel can
feel the distress of their brothers here, how should Israeli Arabs feel,
sometimes only meters away from Palestinian villages.

Pro-fence Arabs

The fence aroused no Israeli Arab protest even when its northern segment
was built during 2002-03, cutting off these towns from adjacent Palestinian
communities with which they had maintained natural and immediate relations
for 36 years.

How did it happen that only a few dozen Israeli Arabs protested the fence,
while Israeli Arab contractors participated in its construction? How did it
happen that in some places, under pressure from Arab local councils, the
fence was routed eastward, at the expense of Palestinian lands?

Are there Israeli Arabs who support separation? On condition of anonymity,
one well-known Arab public figure, a resident of the Triangle, was willing
to speak.

"It's true that the Arab public wants a peace agreement, but beyond the
political dimension, 99 percent of the Arabs in Israel believe that the
fence is a positive thing. It has blocked all illegal attempts [by
Palestinians] to enter Israel, and has cut down on robberies and other
crimes. The economy is flourishing; millions that were invested in the
Palestinian towns are now invested in Wadi Ara. And don't forget that the
Arab public is different from the Palestinians. The Arab public has a
different pattern of life."

This public figure is not alone. "People say `good riddance,'" according to
a journalist who lives in Umm al-Fahm. Between anonymous speakers on the
one hand and Tibi and Bishara on the other, it is difficult to identify a
single "Arab stand" on separation.

There is only one individual who openly expressed qualified support of the
fence - Sheikh Hashem Abd a-Rahman, mayor of Umm al-Fahm. In January,
a-Rahman told Haaretz that since the portion of the fence opposite his town
went up a few months before, "residents are sleeping peacefully, they feel
more secure. People aren't passing through their houses and their fields,
they are not blowing up anything and not endangering the residents."

His stand is complicated. He supports the fence only if it passes along the
Green Line, and only if arrangements are made for Palestinian passage
through it. Like many others in Umm al-Fahm, located on the seam line, Abd
a-Rahman is disturbed by the damage caused to his town and its image during
the intifada, because of terrorists from Jenin who passed through it on
their way to carry out attacks in Israel.

The city's good name was maligned to such an extent that residents started
using false addresses. "No fence can cut me off from my people," says the
sheikh, "but I want also want security, I also want peace. Since the
government put up the fence, you haven't head one case of an attacker that
came through Umm al-Fahm."

Similar statements can be heard on the street in Umm al-Fahm or in nearby
Kafr Kara, but Sheikh Hashem's saying it caused a public earthquake. From
his prison cell, Sheikh Raed Salah, the leader of the Northern Islamic
Movement, rushed to publish an article condemning the fence. Sheikh Hashem
is on his own for the present.

Jamal Jum'ah never heard that there are Israeli Arabs who support the
fence. When he hears the quotes, he has trouble hiding his disappointment.
"I think that this is largely lack of information," he excuses it at first,
but then he begins to get angry.

"This is not right. I feel bad when I hear such things. This is a selfish
point of view. Where is the point of view of the other? Does the speaker
know what the fence means for the Palestinians? How much destruction it
causes, how it oppresses them, takes away their land and their resources?
The lives of the Palestinians are being destroyed. They are the ones who
will live in a ghetto. I don't think he will sleep peacefully after this
happens."