ISM Central

2003-11-05T06:49:00.000-08:00

Morlock Before joining the ISM in Jenin, Mustafa Henaway was arrested for a disorderly protest at the World Economic Forum in NYC (via LGF).

2003-10-25T09:24:00.000-07:00

This Associated Press article (on the IDF's arrests of a Hamas bombmaker and Fatah man hiding in Nablus hospitals) mentions "peace activist" Mark Turner. Turner is actually an ISM-er who speaks admiringly of suicide bombers (using the Palestinian term "martyrs"):

we're also trying to protect
the last of the homes of the balata martyrs. these
houses were once the homes of young men who went into
israel or to settlements to bomb.

2003-10-22T06:55:00.000-07:00

BBC2 is broadcasting a documentary on Rachel Corrie and Tom Hurndall on Nov 2. It will probably be the standard worshipful fare with a few token responses from uncharismatic Israeli spokespeople. But if you see it and notice dramatic misstatements, please send me the details.

Thanks to those who sent info about the Rutgers and Ohio conferences of the "Palestine Solidarity Movement". Evan Coyne Maloney's video about the Rutgers conference is here. To me it looks like the far-left loonies in these American groups are comparatively harmless. New Jersey Solidarity leader Charlotte Kates looks particularly silly.

2003-10-14T08:16:00.000-07:00

The ISM has been a bit slippery as to what they mean when they say that they want the end of "the occupation". But you don't have to look much to find the leadership or other ISMers talking about the "one-state solution", or ending "Zionism"; ISM sites often link to al-Awda etc. - for the ISM, Israel's mere existing is "the occupation".

Here's one example in the middle of a note from the ISM to the family of Tom Hurndall:

He brought with him the warmth and security of an international presence, something which the so-called Security Council has failed to achieve in over 50 years of occupation.

2003-10-13T03:48:00.000-07:00

ISM Summer Camp These are supposedly "Letters to American children" written by Palestinian kids at an ISM-affiliated summer camp at Deir Ibzia. Judge for yourself.

Eg.:

Hello, My name is Raghda.

I am thirteen years old. I like to Intifada. I am in eighth grade. I am a Palestinian child. I live in Deir Ibzi'a.

We are the children of Palestine. We send this to all the children of the world and especially American children. We tell you here about our tragic situation in the shade of the unfair occupation who doesn't know the word mercy. The Second Terrorist After Bush (Sharon) kills the children, arrests the men, humiliates women, demolishes houses, destroys trees, pollutes the air, steals the goods of this country and has the movement of the citizens in his hands. ....

We ask American kids to help us, because we asked adults but they didn't listen. We hope that you hear our call for help and help us. We believe we will get our rights some day. We thank everyone of the Internationals who tried to help us, especially Mr. Jon (Jackson). Thank you very much.

2003-10-12T07:09:00.000-07:00

"Thus I feel comfortable supporting the intifada" This ISMer (October 7th entry) enthusiastically describes a Nablus rally that included various Palestinian terrorist groups:

Children and youths lined the roof-tops, waving smaller flags and headbands. Large 10ftx6ft flags were held above the crowd: Red for the Marxist factions (PFLP and DFLP), green for Hamas, black for Islamic Jihad and black and white keffiya-style for the ruling Fateh.

Ambulances and medical relief volunteers mixed in the crowd, participating and chanting down megaphones while remaining ready for any problems, shots gone astray and fainting.....

Enormous cloth paintings hanging from apartment and office blocks, some six floors high. Some were portraits of factional leaders and heroes, others expanded on political emblems. One particularly striking Hamas painting showed two courageous Hamas knights on horseback charging an Israeli octopus clasping the Al-Aqsa mosque in its tentacles. A third Hamas knight on foot had successfully severed a tentacle with his bloodied sword.

At one point, the crowd turned from the speakers to watch Hamas abseilers in masks fly down 9 floors, and a car-sized model of an Israeli F16 went up in flames, while Qtab (Fateh-supporting armed group) and Qassam (Hamas military wing) paraded in uniform, showing off their best weapons, shooting sporadically into the air.

I'm certain that there were kids with fake explosive belts and mockups of exploding Israeli buses as well, but ISMer Mika elected to leave out those parts. Nevertheless, Mika's admiration for Hamas et. al. is apparent.

Mika tries to soft-pedal the disturbing scene:

Most were fronted by young faction 'scouts' playing drums. The most organised were the Hamas and the PFLP ('Marxist' Popular Front) scouts, whose uniforms wre strikingly similar to British Scouts, except for the political insignia.

Also:

The crowd was reinforced by hundreds of schoolgirls in blue&white striped uniform, most not wearing hijab, reminiscent of the British schoolchildren that filled the streets when war began on March 20th.

and:

In my perception, most of the means of the intifada is directed at widespread non-compliance with the military occupation and attacks on soldiers.

But ultimately Mika remains uncomfortable:

People supported the anti-apartheid movement despite opposing ANC attacks on white civilians (now generally forgotten). Others supported the Iraq war while opposing clusterbombs. Thus I feel comfortable supporting the intifada. (The concept of 'victory' is another matter.)

Mika, your Islamic Jihad friends blew up a cafe in my neighborhood a few weeks ago. You're obviously aware that such attacks won't lead to the end of the (so flexibly-defined) "occupation". I agree totally with those who say that you and your fellow ISMers are exacerbating the horrible situation here, and should not be allowed in. If you want to help the Palestinians, try joining a real humanitarian group. If the IDF's behavior disturbs you, you can even go work for a human rights group like B'Tselem or al-Haq (despite the deep and non-comparable flaws of the 2 groups).

The games that you play in your head (and the fact that you can't shake your discomfort) don't make what you are doing any less objectionable. The silliness of your claims that the IDF and Hamas/IJ are morally equivalent is made clear by the awkward circumlocutions of your own website.

2003-10-05T01:53:00.000-07:00

Read the ISM's Orwellian response to Islamic Jihad's bombing of a Haifa restaurant that killed 19 yesterday. Sort through the various self-serving ISM garbage to get to the punchline paragraph:

ISM is unequivocally opposed to the killing of all innocent civilians, and sees the perpetuation of violence as a direct result of the Israel's military occupation of Palestinian land.....

Note to Independent columnist Johann Hari and others: the second half of that sentence unequivocally renders the first half meaningless. Does the ISM somehow object to the bombing or its perpetrators? "no, the bombing is a direct consequence of Israeli policies" and you can't object to or complain about natural consequences. The ISM has no complaints about Islamic Jihad (and Hamas) or objections to being buddies with them. If anyone has any doubts on the matter, see a previous Huwaida Arraf rant. The ISM continues:

...Earlier this afternoon two Palestinians, one a 9-year-old Mohammed Daraghmeh al-Nouri, were shot and killed by Israeli troops in the West Bank town of Tulkarem.

"two Palestinians" ... hmmm... one of them was Sarhan Sarhan, who shot 5 Israeli civilians dead (including a mother who was reading to her 2 children) at Kibbutz Metzer in November 2002 (report). Strange for the ISM to be mourning someone like him right after they claim that they're unequivocally opposed to the killing of civilians. The death of the 9-yr. old, tragic if true, has not been confirmed by non-Palestinian sources.

2003-09-17T00:46:00.000-07:00

Mother Jones published this melodramatic article by Newsweek Jerusalem bureau chief Joshua Hammer on Rachel Corrie and the ISM.

Though the article has little in the way of new information, the ISM is apparently quite upset about being treated dismissively in a major leftist publication.

Hammer's article claims that driver of "the" bulldozer was interviewed on Israeli TV, which I'm fairly certain is incorrect. Hammer also claims that the security fences bordering Gaza are "electrified" (nonsense - unless he means that there are electric video cameras).

2003-09-09T08:11:00.000-07:00

Alex Fitch sounds much more "normal" than the typical ISMer who has just managed to lie about his travel plans to the immigration people at Ben-Gurion airport. Fitch says positive things about Israelis, and seems to take in his new surroundings with an open mind.

Maybe it's because he's writing a series for the BBC. Expect dramatic whitewashing of the ISM and its activities.

The BBC calls Fitch a "peace activist", but he's a participant in the Welsh Anarchists Association, as are fellow ISMers Susanne Kempe and Ceri Gibbons (who gets nostalgic about Lenin). Here's a nice snippet from the WAA's initial meeting:

III: do we want to pursue direct actions?
we agreed that we want to do forms of direct actions; for example distribution of leaflets and poster actions – concept of subvertisement, participation in these activities is of course voluntary; we agreed that we want to plan the revolution…; we had a heated discussion on the use of violence in our prospective actions - covering aspects of violence against people and property as well as the concept of ‘creative violence’, we didn’t reach any agreement – therefore, everybody is welcome to discuss these issues further in the email discussion group

These people must get a kick out of being here in Israel for events like today's bus stop bombing. It must remind them of Kropotkin or Joseph Conrad.

Update: The new dispatch from skinhead pinhead Fitch consists of brief paragraphs and short declarative sentences - perhaps what Fitch wrote has been heavily edited by the BBC.

It's mostly jejune, but Fitch casually mentions "small towns on a steep hillside, peaceful now but shelled intermittently over past years." Since he's travelling from Bethlehem, that can only be Beit Jala, which was a quiet Christian village (and home of many UN employees) until Fatah members invaded it to fire guns and occasionally mortars into the Jerusalem residential neighborhood of Gilo in 2000.

2003-09-08T01:16:00.000-07:00

Funding This ISM fundraiser in Los Angeles was sponsored by the American Friends Service Committee (ie. the Quakers) and the Muslim Public Affairs Council.

2003-09-08T00:45:00.000-07:00

Morlocks Here are some "protest signs" prepared by an ISM-er and sent to an ISM "alumni" email list.

Someone responded:

I personally try to be a non-self-righteous advocate of nonviolence. Even if you aren't, it undermines our credibility as a solidarity movement if we have signs at our events which endorse actions that harm unarmed and relatively innocent people.

Even the "good-guy" ISM-er thinks that Israeli children are only "relatively innocent".

2003-09-03T01:00:00.000-07:00

In this article on the ISM from FrontPage Magazine, author Alyssa Lappen writes that ISM associate George Rishawi facilitated the arrival of the Brits who bombed the Mike's Place pub in Tel Aviv (via his Alternative Tourism Group organization). She doesn't provide a source for this claim, and the bombers' itinerary (as detemined by the Israeli gov't) does not have them visiting the Bethlehem area.

Maybe the Israeli Shin-Bet will be able to determine in detail the extent of the bombers' involvement with the ISM. But what's clear is that they bombers were able to appear to ISMers as "fellow travellers", and that the ISM didn't contact Israeli authorities after their "new friends" blew up the Mike's Place pub.

2003-09-02T09:07:00.000-07:00

ISM Training (a blog entry in progress)

ISMers who have managed to enter Israel meet at a hostel near Jerusalem's Damascus Gate and are shuttled to 2 days of training at a hotel in Beit Sahur (near Bethlehem). One-time ISMer Uri Ayalon writes that there are sessions describing "the basic terminology of Palestine", "the history of the region" (in one hour), doctrines of non-violence resistance, the IDF's modes of operation, and dealing with the media.

From an account of a "history" session by Dr. Jad Isaac:

In 1948, the Arabs of the neighboring countries did not come to liberate Palestine, but to divide it. There was no real war. We had some fighting, but we were told to give up our arms, that this problem was for the armies to settle.
.....
In 2000 Clinton made a peace proposal after the failure of Camp David. He said this was his ‘final offer,’ as if it were a deal in a bazaar. Eighty per cent of the settlements were to be preserved as part of Israel, while leaving minimal impact on the Palestinians. This would have rewarded the occupation by legitimizing the settlements.
...
It seems that the Israeli policy will be to make life for us so unbearable that we will leave, or else they will expel us

What's astonishing about this (admittedly second-hand) account is not just the childishness and misinformation, but also the apparent passivity and lack of any prior awareness on the part of the "trainee". You can picture the guy jotting it all down and nodding. Ditto with how the ISM describes the IDF:

...Soldiers mistreat Palestinians very badly at the checkpoints. Sometimes they beat them, and sometimes they kill them. They make ambulances wait for long periods, regardless of the condition of the patient inside. Sometimes they take out the driver and medic and make them strip and lie on the ground.
....
In one incident with an ambulance, there was a paramedic and a pregnant woman. The paramedic and driver were made to lie in the street for three hours. After a while the woman began to scream. Fortunately a doctor arrived and helped her give birth.
...

The ISM really does seem to be run by local Palestinians, which accounts for the extent that its dogma (and "terminology") closely match the views associated with the "Palestinian street". One training session included a very local perspective on Palestinian politics:

Secondly, the final part of today's training was an introduction to Palestinian political groups. The presenter, whose name I'll withhold, really did a wonderful job of giving us an overview of all the different groups. At the end, during question time, he was asked if he favored one group over another. He responded that his family had raised him in the DFLP (the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a Maoist group). Although he currently has no particular affiliation, he tends to currently favor the PFLP (the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, also Marxist, but not as hard-line as the DFLP). Ending the discussion with this, I feel, truly put a human face on the armed struggle movement in Palestine....

DFLP and PFLP are terrorist groups that murder Israeli civilians (if you didn't know) ...

There's a pair of IDF refusers (one named Eshel) who have lectured ISMers on the IDF mindset and procedure:

(note that the ISMer cites the fact that some people do their military service by teaching children as evidence that for the "militant" view that in Israel there is no such thing as a civilian).

ISM London has its own training sessions. Here's a 2002 account from The Independent (scroll down), where a leader says frankly that the ISM aren't peace activists (in his mind they're "justice activists").

If anyone has seen any of these videos, could you please send me a summary?

2003-09-02T06:35:00.000-07:00

More Huwaida Arraf A few weeks ago Huwaida Arraf wrote to the Jerusalem Post - apparently to respond to accusations that the International Solidarity Movement has used violence and cooperated with terrorists:

Sir, - Joel Leyden's "IDF disperses violent protest at security fence near Tulkarm," (August 1) is full of inaccuracies and unfounded accusations against the International Solidarity Movement, amounting to slander. With this brief letter I will respond to just two of the more outrageous accusations: that our protests against the Apartheid Wall are violent, and that the ISM is connected to "terrorist organizations."

The ISM, Israeli peace groups and Palestinians have been protesting the building of this dreadful wall since it was begun. The Israeli government slyly calls it a "security fence," but this four-meter fence, topped with razor wire in some areas, an eight-meter concrete monster in other areas, is no security fence. It has been built to steal water and resources from the Palestinians and turn Palestinian ghettos into prisons. If the Israeli government indeed thought that a wall, instead of freedom for the oppressed Palestinian people, will bring Israelis security, then Israel should be building this "security fence" on the Green Line and not on Palestinian land.

Every nation that has ever been occupied has had the right to protest that occupation. The Americans fought against the British, the French resisted the Nazi occupation, to name just two nations who fought for their freedom. Palestinians have the same right to resist occupation via "legitimate armed struggle," peaceful actions, or a combination of the two. The ISM is committed to peaceful actions as part of that equation. The violence in this struggle has been the violence against us, not perpetrated by us.

The second accusation that Mr. Leyden parrots verbatim from discounted Israeli sources is that we are affiliated with terrorist groups. We are not. A tactic of the Israeli government has been to label every Palestinian man, woman and child a "terrorist" in an attempt to justify its brutal actions against an occupied people. Now the tactic is to also try to vilify peace activists from all over the world who are raising their voices against an evil occupation that is the root cause of violence in Israel/Palestine. The terrorism that we have seen has been directed at us: the Israeli Military terrorism against Palestinian civilians and against internationals like Rachel Corrie, Tom Hurndall, and Brian Avery.

Mr. Leyden can now add another 12 internationals who were wounded this past week by a military which shoots at unarmed men and women of all ages who are protesting an illegal and immoral wall/fence that even the Americans say is a problem.

HUWAIDA ARRAF
Bethlehem

Arraf doesn't address any of the points in Leyden's original article or course - her central point is that "Palestinians are resistors, so they can't be terrorists. ... the IDF are terrorists". The rest of her self-righteous posturing can't conceal her lack of objection towards what most people would term terrorist groups, or her support for destructive behavior.

2003-09-02T06:30:00.000-07:00

Al-Jazeera loves the ISM.

2003-08-29T04:35:00.000-07:00

LGF links to the ISM announcement list that I mentioned the other day, and I see that a lot of readers are now taking a look at the messages.

Here are some more sites that include writings by ISMers: Riseup Lists (search for "ism" or "palestine"), gaza.blogspot.com (mostly cut-and-paste, original content is in Swedish, some interesting photos), ISM Vancouver, ISM London Forum, "Boston To Palestine" (also here), Colorado group Rapprochement List (the progenitor of the ISM?), blog by Mika The majority of these people really do seem to be either hard-leftys or ultra-naive; and the Americans seem to be worse than the Brits. Talk of "martyrs", or "revenge attacks" is common, as is whitewashing of events and peoples' backgrounds.

If you are looking at these sites, please keep an eye open in particular for information about ISM's involvement with the al-Titi (or Teeti) family in Balata - ISM maintains a headquarters of sorts in the family home (and has for since at least early 2002 I think). CNN interviewed the proud (and pre-aware) mother of the family after her son Jihad blew up himself and two Israeli women at an ice cream parlor in Petah Tikva (or "committed suicide" in the words of one very fiskable ISM-er writing around the time of Operation Defensive Shield who seems to be unaware of Mom's pride in her son, that Israel killed cousin Mahmoud al-Titi for activities in the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, etc. etc.). Please look out for information about who manages the ISM organization and how, and also any info on cooperation with the media. It's good to save webpages because you never know when they might disappear.

The ISM announcement list is not a discussion group and is fairly predictable. Tomorrow they will moan about how many fruit trees were destroyed when the IDF entered Gaza today, and they won't mention that this was in response to the new longer-range Qassam rockets that were launched from the site. Media coordinator Sam McGarry nevers mentions Israel, but only the "Israeli state".

2003-08-28T07:50:00.000-07:00

More Huwaida Arraf In 2002, Haggai Elitzur attended a presentation by Arraf and husband Adam Shapiro at UMichigan . Arraf confidently claimed that Israel was planning to expel all the Palestinians during the imminent Iraq war.

And Haggai asked Arraf a few questions himself (report here).

2003-08-26T12:44:00.000-07:00

Huwaida Arraf today sent an email that can be said to constitute the ISM's official reaction to last Tuesday's bus bombing in Jerusalem.

Let's try to step inside her mind and see things "the ISM way" - if we dare:

Friends,

After the August 19 bus bombing in Jerusalem, the ISM received a number of emails asking if the ISM was going to make a statement and we received some of the usual, "why isn't the ISM riding Israeli busses?" comments. One email suggested that if we don't speak out against this bombing, we are "party to it".

These are good questions. The messages on the ISM mailing list agonize daily over Palestinian suffering (both real and otherwise) but made no mention at all of the Jerusalem bombing. The ISM's "actions" interfere with the IDF's operations against terrorists, which leaves the impression that the internationals tacitly support such actions. So I look forward to hear Arraf's responses to these questions even as she sneers at them.

Again our response is that we are working to stop all violence in the region, not by issuing statements, but by working to end the root cause of the violence against Israelis and Palestinians - the ongoing, brutal Israeli occupation of Palestinian land and lives ......

Hmm. "Blaming it on The Occupation". But she's supposed to make a ritual condemnation first .. You know, like, "We condemn these attacks, but ..."

In the few short weeks after the hudna was announced on June 29, 2003, up until August 9, 10 days before the bus bombing in Jerusalem, the Israeli military killed 10 Palestinians, 5 of them children, wounded 348 Palestinians, 65 of them children, arrested 435 Palestinians, damaged or completely demolished/destroyed 211 Palestinian homes, and uprooted or destroyed over 10,050 Palestinian fruit and olive trees. This is not to mention the vehicles and businesses damaged and/or destroyed, the thousands of dunams of Palestinian land confiscated or isolated from its owners, the number of new settlement structures that were built, the bypass roads created, the Israeli military outposts erected, the continued work on the apartheid wall, the continued denial of access to Palestinians to their land, and the ongoing daily abuse at checkpoints

CBBTFTP = "Can''t be bothered to fisk that part....

We are not going to issue statements.

She said that already, but OK.

We stand against the killing of all civilians and are saddened for the families of the victims of that bus bombing.

If Arraf had said "We stand against the killing of civilians under all circumstances", I would understand her to be expressing an objection (and taking a moral stand) against the Islamikazes. But she's taking pains to say that she's not "making a statement", so I can only understand her to be saying that the ISM opposes killing civilians "in principle" - the same way that she's for peace on earth.

At the same time we're frustrated with the politics of governments and the complacency that is allowing this to continue. Without a check on the Israeli government and military, this will continue. There can be no hudna or "road map" without restraints put on the Israeli military and government.

I thought you just said that you guys weren't going to issue statements. To me this sure sounds like a statement to the effect that the ISM thinks that the suicide bombings should continue until "The Occupation" ends.

2003-08-25T14:04:00.000-07:00

Aaron Weisburd links to a series of Yahoo news photos showing the IDF searching and then demolishing an explosives and missile lab in Nablus. And sure enough "activists" (presumably the ISM) attempt to interfere with the IDF.

It would be very interesting to know the course of events. Were the ISM-ers at all surprised or disturbed about the explosives?

2003-08-25T14:02:00.000-07:00

Thanks to all who emailed with encouragement and information and apologies for not getting back to you right away.

Please forward me whatever interesting info you get on ISM activities (esp. on your particular campus). It's important to document that these are not "peace activists". Also when sending me info, please indicate if you want me to use your name.

2003-08-25T07:53:00.000-07:00

Aaron Weisburd describes the ISM's involvement with Omar and Alah al-Titi, whose brother Jihad was an Islamikaze who blew up an Israeli child and her grandmother at an ice cream shop in Petah Tikva. Also note this ISM-affiliated dispatch. In addition to accusing the IDF of planting a truck bomb etc. , the memo says:

The Teeti family home houses the ISM office and its team located in the Balata Refugee Camp.

2003-08-24T04:47:00.000-07:00

I don't believe overexposed narcissist ISM-er Abe Greenhouse when he writes:

I haven’t read all the articles I’ve been quoted in yet, but I’m worried about coming across as somehow taking advantage of this tragedy to get up on a political soapbox and talk about ending the occupation.

He saw Tuesday's bus bombing first-hand but waited til Saturday (after Friday's LGF articles showed him taking advantage of the tragedy to get up on a political soapbox) before describing the attack on his "support" mailling list. His earlier "reportbacks" scarcely mention the bombing.

In my opinion, the story isn’t about ME. It’s about the innocent people who died, the latest victims in a cycle of violence that has claimed too many lives on both sides. I’m afraid that focusing on my own experience detracts from the story, and perhaps even disrespects the memory of those who died.

Hmmmm. . . Abe seems to have discovered a new persona that was absent from all his previous writings.

Despite his expressions of horror and sympathy, much of the post (and its ending) are the same boring (and Jaysonesque) blah-blah .

He told me that he’d never before met a Jew who would even use the word “Palestine”, let alone express any reservations about Israeli policy. He told me that he was totally opposed to the attacks carried out by groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad, but that it seemed like Israel was deliberately provoking them by repeatedly violating ceasefire agreements and making life miserable for ordinary Palestinians. He said he longed for the day when Palestinians and Israelis could live side by side in peace, but that he was doubtful that such peace would come in his lifetime.

Abe isn't pigheaded enough (in this post anyway) to claim that it was Israel who violated the ceasefire, or that taking down the roadblocks or the security fence would prevent attacks like Tuesday's - so he quotes a oh-so-peaceful and soft-spoken Palestinian gentlemen to make the same points.

2003-08-23T14:29:00.000-07:00

A reader forwards an email from the mailing list of the Ohio State "Committee for Justice in Palestine" in which an ISM-er named Karl describes the "martyr" whose home he is staying at in anticipation of demolition by the IDF:

I have been staying almost every night for the past 6-7 weeks with the Abu Ayesh family in the Balata refugee camp (more info about Balata here: ). Their son Amer Ayesh performed an operation in 1948 near Quaqila 5 months ago in which 3 soldiers were killed.

Actually, Amer Ayesh and an associate injured two Israeli civilians in a gun attack on Shaarei Tikva before being killed by the IDF (report - scroll down, AP report on the demolition). Though most likely Karl doesn't care either way.

"1948" that Karl mentions would seem to be ISM-parlance for Israel proper (and "1967" would be West Bank/Gaza).

2003-08-22T08:41:00.000-07:00

More from the writings of ISM-er "Steve":

A suggestion that Palestinians might actually engage in violent activity:

On Monday night we learned that a time bomb had been found by security near the farmers' gate, and was detonated by the Israeli army. As a result, the area around the gate was closed by the army and was crawling with troops. We decided not to attempt access to the lands west of the fence on Tuesday. There has been speculation here that the Israeli army planted the time bomb in order to justify widening their off-limits zone on either side of the fence.

Distracted by the complexity of the local conspiracy theories, the guy slipped and described the security fence using the term "fence".

There was a group of boys in front of us-little boys, not teenagers-who were chanting energetically without apparent adult guidance. I was struck by how these boys see themselves as empowered members of the resistance to Israeli occupation and injustice.

Others see hateful indoctrination, stolen childhoods, and perpetuation of the conflict for at least the next generation - but the ISM sees empowered 8 year-olds.

Trip to Jerusalem:

The pedestrian mall in West Jerusalem was packed, because it was Thursday night (everything's closed Friday night for the Jewish Sabbath), and because there is a currently a cease fire between the Israeli army and Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade.

Nuances like who made a truce with who, and what a hudna is would no doubt be lost on Steve.

Actually the hudna has nothing to do with people going downtown more often. The crowds started to drift back over the past 6 months as the IDF gradually got the situation under control. There aren't too many parents who are less concerned about their kids going downtown because of the hudna.

Everyone entering the outdoor mall had to be thoroughly checked by one of a legion of security guards. I found it pretty scary...

Here's someone who describes working is a security guard at the outdoor mall last summer - she doesn't look scary to me.

I also thought that the Israeli peace movement ought to do an action there, hanging banners on the barricades that point out that it's the Occupation that makes metal detectors on a city street necessary.

The mainstream Israeli peace movement doesn't do "actions". The Israeli peace movement may be naive, but they don't live under an ideological rock in the way Steve seems to.

2003-08-22T07:02:00.000-07:00

"Peace and Rage" is the parting phrase used by ISM-er "Steve" in this post that includes an obscene juxtaposition of a picture of the Warsaw Ghetto with the West Bank security fence ("Hey Dude they look the same don't they").

The letter actually gives a reasonable report about hardships endured by Palestinian villagers in Jayyous and other villages near where the security fence is being built. This stuff is sad, but not shocking - so Steve unskeptically reports a lot of local rumors about the IDF (eg. border guards shooting out water tanks, soldier shooting at kids etc.) and incessantly uses that mind-numbing ISM lingo: "apartheid" wall , illegal settlements, "trapped" family, "anyone think that's a coincidence?", "ever-expanding" settlements, "protects" in sneer quotes. "sheer brutality of the Wall project". A few times though he slips up and calls the security fence a "fence".

Steve easily adapts Palestinian non-sequiturs: eg. The {"Wall", checkpoints, etc. } mean that Israelis don't want peace. He preposterously claims that the Israelli government forces Russian immigrants to become settlers.

Steve proudly describes ISM "actions":

Afterward, Gabriel and I rushed back to Mas'ha, on word that Israeli activists were about to stage a surprise action there. About 24 young Israeli Jews arrived, held onto the scoop of a front loader, and stood on a giant drill, forcing work to stop. They then occupied the front loader. Their signs were all in Hebrew, and said things like "Separation Wall=Land Theft=Death", "This isn't a fence, it's a ghetto", and, chillingly, "Does this remind you of anything?" They chanted "No to the fence, no to transfer."

Had they been Palestinians, they would have been met with live fire immediately. ....

A few interesting factual points from the post:

- the "activists" and local Palestinians have some mechanism for getting around the Israeli checkpoints at Kalkilya. Always romantics, they call it the "Underground Railroad".

- the security fence includes a special gate for access by Palestinian farmers from the village of Jayyous

- an Associated Press photojournalist named Ragheb worked in close coordination with the ISM (eg. wakes them up when the IDF activity)

- the IDF avoids arresting the ISM-ers when they are within the perimeters of Palestinian villages

2003-08-22T06:05:00.000-07:00

The tabloid Trentonian speaks to ISM-er Abe Greenhouse at the site of Tuesday's bus bombing in Jerusalem that killed 18:

"There is a lot of danger in the work I do," Greenhouse said. "It was a very trying experience, but nothing compared to the regular dangers Palestinians face every day.

Compare with this:

At the end of our conversation, Jens asks that I quote him on one more thing: "It's clear to me that what I'm going through here, and what happened to Brian, are nothing compared to what the Palestinians go through every day." At the workshop in Beit Sahur, they taught us to insert this sentence into every interview with the media.

Greenhouse is the fellow who was pleased with himself for putting a note in the Western Wall saying "End the %$#%$# occupation!!!". (via LGF)