A Day of Protective Presence in the West Bank |
I don’t consider myself to be a very political person. To me activism is just about standing up for basic human decency.
Last Monday I went to the West Bank together with an organization called Torat Tzedek to do “protective presence.” What this means is that Israelis come to spend time at Palestinian villages to deter settlers from attacking and to film confrontations that occur.
I took a bus from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, then walked to the nearby Yellow gas station, where I was picked up by Yoel, a semi-retired gardener who has been active in protective presence for fifteen years.
As we headed out, there was some awkwardness as Yoel had difficulty with my strong American accent. Nevertheless I was curious to learn about his experiences.
Israeli activists confront the settlers much less frequently than they used to because the settlers have become more violent. It used to be effective to just stand in their way and physically block them from approaching. Now the Palestinians mainly do the dirty work.
Turning to the (Israeli) authorities used to sometimes bear fruit but now it is more likely to backfire. The military’s new way of “responding” to these complaints is declaring the area a closed military zone and then preventing people like Yoel from entering, while offering the settlers trail mix as they head out to resume their rampage.
The profession of shepherding is out of fashion these days as the pastures are mostly gone.
We passed by a settlement called Binyamin. Yoel explained that, “This is where we go to the police station submit testimony (on behalf of Palestinians who get arrested for defending their property).” I asked if I should expect to see some action and he responded that there usually is an incident once a day.
Our first stop was a village called Taybe. An attack happened there a week ago and the victim recently saw a settler on the prowl and requested for us to come and spend time with him so he could feel more secure.
This fence was quickly built following the attack.
Ziyad was sitting in this building. He was attacked a week ago. He was beaten, and his herd and all of his money were stolen.
My job is to film and Yoel’s job is to confront the intruder because it’s my first time. It is likely that the fence will........