Palestine Dispatch

"A LAND WITHOUT PEOPLE FOR A PEOPLE WITHOUT LAND"

The words of the first president of the state of Israel, Chaim Weizmann in 1914. The land which has been called Palestine for centuries is the place he was referring to, and was populated only, according to him and all other leading Zionists, by a few wandering bands of Bedouin tribesmen, themselves of questionable moral standing. Plus, of course, it had been home to the Jews for millennia before they were turfed out by the Romans in 70 AD.

Trouble was, it wasn't populated by a few Bedouin tribes, but by nearly seven million Arabs. Then in 1917, in the famous (or infamous) "Balfour Declaration", the British government pledged itself to the formation of a Jewish state in Palestine. In the small print, it also promised to defend the rights of the indigenous peoples of Palestine, but the print was so small it was overlooked and then forgotten altogether in the rush to create the brand new country of Israel. And since the establishment of that state in 1948, they have been forcing them out (millions now live in Jordan) and corralling those remaining into smaller and smaller enclaves.

I have just returned home from a week in the West Bank, absorbing the unique atmosphere of that place and learning the harsh realities of life there. When I last visited it in 2010, settlements declared illegal by the International Courts of Justice perched on the tops of a few hills around Bethlehem and other sites. Now they can be seen everywhere, not just on the hilltops but along ridges which stretch for mile upon mile. Now close on 750,000 Jewish settlers live on land bought, co-erced or simply stolen from the Palestinians. And they have no interest in living in harmony with their neighbours. They regularly sally forth from their redoubts, chopping down, burning and poisoning the Palestinian olive trees, iconic symbols of survival throughout the Middle East. Nearly one million out of the seven million olive trees belonging to the Palestinians have been destroyed in this way since 2006. So far not a single settler has even been prosecuted, never mind convicted of any offence.

How do you tell the difference between an Arab house and a settler house? Easy. An Arab house will have a large white plastic water barrel on its roof, the Settler one will not. Water supply is restricted to the Arab areas, so they needs must store it. Israeli houses live under no such restriction, their water flows from their taps just as ours does. Oh, and where does this water come from? The Arab lands of course. Yet some settlers will still tell you that the Arabs store water because they are greedy and would steal water from their neighbours. This is how they justify their behaviour. At one point we stood on a hill in Beit Sahour, a suburb of Bethlehem and looked down into a valley where a ten metre high wall has been built by the Israelis. Hundreds of Arab families live on this side of the wall, while the land they own lies on the other side. But not for long. The Israelis have passed a law saying that if land is neglected for more than three years it is forfeit, so now these families have lost their land and it is being developed by the Israelis for their own purposes .

When we arrived in Bethlehem the Palestine Marathon was about to be run. Four thousand runners, mostly Muslims, but also Arab Christians (a minority within a minority) and even a handful of liberal-minded Israelis (yes, there are a few), along with several hundred visitors from overseas. In a wonderful carnival atmosphere, under the banner of "THE RIGHT TO MOVEMENT", people forgot their differences for a few hours before returning to the grind of life under military occupation. Then two days ago, we visited the Dead Sea, surely one of the most extraordinary places on Earth and swam in its strange, unreal waters. Here too, Jews, Muslims and Christians came together to enjoy the amenities. Granted, there wasn't exactly a dialogue between these groups, but there was no segregation, no fences, just people sitting on the beach in deckchairs within yards of each other, all enjoying the balmy atmosphere and stunning views.

So it seems these warring factions can come together under the right circumstances. The Palestinian people are an incredibly robust and optimistic bunch. They are sure one day they will obtain the justice they deserve, but I fear this will come only when the world wakes up to the reality of their suffering, and comes together, as it did with Apartheid South Africa, to bring it to an end.