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Reflections after the Israeli-Palestinian Remembrance Day
By: Nurit Peled-Elhanan
Combatants for Peace
9 May 2011

Reflections after the Israeli-Palestinian Remembrance Day

Nurid Peled-Elhanan

The ‘Combatants for Peace’ movement has held a joint Israeli-Palestinian Remembrance ceremony for the sixth year in a row now.

This year, unlike previous years, the Civil Administration decided not to permit the Palestinian representatives to go to Tel Aviv in order to participate in the ceremony, for no reason and without any excuse.

‘Combatants for Peace’ contacted the office of the head of the Civil Administration and restricted the list to only 12 people. But the Civil Administration said no.

The army did not explain, a closure was imposed. As if all those institutions were alien to us. As if among the many Jews who went to the ceremony there were none who did Reserve duty, none who were about to be inducted for compulsory service and become enforcers of that closure, a vital and decisive component of the Occupation regime.


The above quotes from the newspapers testify like a thousand witnesses that opposition to the Occupation and obedience to its laws cannot go together.

After they were answered with a blanket refusal, Combatants for Peace appealed to the most right-wing member of the Knesset, Benny Begin, not only to the most left-wing Knesset Member – Zehava Galon. But both their requests were in vain. The authorities did not reward them like loyal obedient citizens should be rewarded. So now they report to the press, as is appropriate in a democratic state.

The clearest message of the impeccable behaviour of Combatants for Peace towards the Occupation authorities was: see what exemplary citizens we are. We applied for permits on time (2-3-4 weeks ahead of time), we lowered the number of people so as not to frighten you, we restricted them only to those who would not be provocative in your eyes. For example, even though the event was done in partnership with the Bereft Families Forum for Peace we did not protest against the denial of authorization for Khaled Abu-Awad – the Chairman of the Forum, who has been besieged in Beit Umar for more than a year now, because his son Muhannad has been jailed for more than two years now without charge or visits. No one mentioned Khaled during the ceremony – did anyone know him? Nevertheless, Khaled`s “forbidden” sister, Siham, who was denied a permit for the same reason – the unjustified incarceration of her nephew – sent a video message of reconciliation and forgiveness in faith that she was talking to people who do not obey the racist laws of the Occupation.

The movement`s message was: “At the centre of the ceremony that we are conducting is the human pain and bereavement that are shared by the two peoples. On this day we come together in pain and suffering.The presence of the Palestinian representatives is a symbolof the ability of the two peoplesto join hands, to leave behind the residues of the past,to forgive, to come to reconciliation and thereby to put an end to the cycle of bloodshed.”

Who exactly has the ability to join hands? Who exactly has the ability or the right to leave behind the residue of the past, and whose past were they talking about? Of those for whom the past is history or of those who are still living it every day and every hour? Of the people of the affluent Jewish neighbourhood Rehavia or the people of Sheikh Jarrah? Of the children of Tel Aviv or of the children of Beit Umar and Silwan who are pulled out of their beds every night, to be arrested by jackboots armed from head to toe? Were they suggesting it to bereft mothers or to mothers who try to grab back their small thin sons from the arms of the police or Special Patrol Units (SPU) or Israel Security Agency men – the Devil knows the difference between them – and shout “I am B’tselem, I am B’tselem!!” – without knowing exactly what they are shouting, for they are referring to the cameras in their hands while to the soldiers-police – specialpatrolunits –borderguards-israelsecurityagency the shouts refer to what they were brought up not only to doubt, but to deny absolutely – that those women too, and their children, were created in the image of God [Hebrew: B’tselem]. [1]

Maybe the intention was to leave behind the residue of the past of Gaza?

The ceremony was beautiful, true, very sad and non-vengeful. The Palestinians were seen on the screens, the Israelis sat in the hall. Everyone sent messages of non-violent resistance. But for all that, the word “Occupation” was heard only from the lips of the Palestinian speakers.

The one conclusion that begs to be drawn from this evening was not stated: it is impossible to overthrow a cruel occupation regime by obedience and bowing down one’s head. The only way to bring down the benighted and evil ones is by refusing to cooperate with them.

And indeed, Combatants for Peace is a movement of refusers. Of courageous men and women, who decided not to obey the separatist laws of the Occupation, to bypass the checkpoints and even confront the soldiers and fight together for a normal life of peace and friendship with their neighbours; to break through the walls of apartheid, non-violently but determinedly. That, with recognition that their oppressed, downtrodden, murdered, jailed neighbours are not the “other side” but victims who were often wronged at the hands of the Israeli members of the movement themselves while they were soldiers and victims of brain-poisoning Israeli education that was well described in the speech of Avner Vishnitzer.

By their actions of confession, dialogue and reconciliation, the Combatants for Peace remind all of us that the Jews in the group – us – have not yet earned the right to ask for forgiveness and forgetting. With their personal stories they – whether Jews or Palestinians – demonstrate that there is no personal pain or suffering in this place that is not caused by politics. Whether it is the death of the Fogel family from the illegal, violent settlement of Itamar, who were murdered by enraged Palestinians, the death of Fida`s brothers, who served bravely in the Israeli army, or the death of little Abir Aramin from Anata who was murdered by an Israeli soldier.

But Motti Fogel, Udi Fogel`s brother, in an attempt to save the memory of his “settler” brother from being slandered, warns: “the use of the memory of dead people to justify war and the deaths of others is no more unacceptable than using their memory to advance peace and it makes no difference what my political positions are. I cannot use the death of my brother for the advancement of peace.”

Indeed, it is impossible to advance peace by means of death, but only – as the “Combatants” have made very clear – by means of living together in respect and mutual consideration. However, it is clear to all of us that Udi Fogel, his wife and his three small children were murdered because of the Occupation. Siham’s brother was murdered and Bassam’s daughter was murdered because the Occupation cheapened their blood and made it dispensable with impunity.


Let us hope that by the time next year’s ceremony comes along the Combatants for Peace will have internalized the message of Fida Zeidan from the Druze village Bet-Jann, who made it clear that her two brothers, who fell in Israel’s wars, were nothing but victims of the realization of the Zionist vision that had converted them into its pawns. Let us hope that they will internalize the message that was sent by the refusal of the Occupation authorities to permit the participation of the chairman of the Bereaved Families Forum for Peace and the participation of other Palestinian members: that as long as we obey, whether by joining the army, by paying taxes for settlements and wars, or by insisting on our good intentions and our good citizenship, as long as we are satisfied with our attempts at empathy with “the Other” – we will not eradicate the regime of wickedness.

Maybe the Combatants for Peace – who fight all aspects of the Occupation without fear or favouritism – will decide to transfer the whole ceremony from Tel Aviv where there is no trace of the Occupation to the gates of Beit Umar, to Sheikh Jarrah, to Ramallah, or maybe even Jenin – to the gates of the Freedom Theatre, at the spot where the director of that unique theatre, the Israeli-Palestinian actor Juliano Mer was cruelly murdered by fundamentalists. Not because the Occupation authorities will allow them to do so but because it should be done, even at the cost of hundreds of participants and musician Yoni Rechter who had to emphasize “from the heart” (to whom, exactly, to the Palestinians whom his State does not allow to pass through the gates of the ghetto? To the bereaved families who were robbed by his State of their loved ones?) that he loves his State. Maybe by then instead of loving the State – which is no more than a bunch of unnecessary offices full with corrupt ministers and lazy functionaries, we shall all start loving the country, our country – its olive trees, its vines, and its people, and stop hurting it so.

And maybe instead of Yoni Rechter we can hear one more time – for we can never hear enough of it –Hanoch Levin’s poem:


My dear father, when you stand over my grave,
Old and tired and forlorn here,
And you see how they bury my body in the earth
And you stand over me, my dear father.

Don`t stand then so proud,
And don`t lift up your head, my dear father,
We`re left flesh facing flesh now,
And this is the time to weep, my dear father.

So let your eyes weep for my eyes,
And don`t be silent for my honour here,
Something greater than honour
Now lies at your feet, my dear father.
And don`t say you`ve made a sacrifice,
For the one who sacrificed was me here,
And don`t utter other high-faluting words
For I am very low now, my dear father.

My dear father, when you stand over my grave
Old and tired and forlorn here,
And you see how they bury my body in the earth--
Then you beg my pardon, my dear father. [2]



Translator’s notes

1. The Palestinian women who shout “I am B’tselem!” are referring to the video cameras they have been given by the Israeli human rights organization B’tselem, so that they can visually document human rights abuses by the Israeli authorities. What those women may not know is that the organization’s Hebrew name, “B’tselem”, means “in the image”. It alludes to the fact that the Bible states that human beings – all of them – are created in the image of God. See Genesis 1:26-27 and Genesis 9:6.

2. The poem is from the text of an English translation of Hanoch Levin’s play “Murder”, translated from Hebrew by Barbara Harshav - http://www.thefreelibrary.com/A+symposium+on+Hanoch+Levin`s+play,+murder%3A+a+note+of+introduction.-a0186862598

Translated from Hebrew for Occupation Magazine by George Malent
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