Reuters Features
Westerners Brave Tear Gas in Israel Barrier Battle
Date: Mon, May 24, 2004
By Cynthia Johnston
BIDDO, West Bank (Reuters) - When they come to protest against Israel's West Bank barrier, foreign activists sometimes wear bandannas soaked in vinegar.
Peter, a European activist who has already been hit twice with rubber bullets at pro-Palestinian demonstrations, swears it works better than a whiff of raw onion to ease the burn of tear gas fired by Israeli soldiers.
Western activists have been repeatedly fired on, tear gassed and arrested at protests in the West Bank and Gaza since a Palestinian uprising began in 2000. Two have been killed.
But the activists keep trickling in, confronting bulldozers at West Bank towns like Biddo where Israel is clearing land for a barrier it says will stop suicide bombers.
Israel sees them as idealistic dupes for militants who, sworn to Israel's destruction, have killed hundreds of people since 2000. Palestinians say they lend moral support and make it more difficult for soldiers to use violence.
"The Jews, when they see a foreign activist in front of the bulldozers, they take care," said Biddo resident Sami Mansour. "If they were not here, it would be more violent. Maybe they would kill me."
"They give us a burst of hope," added Mansour's mother Aisha as Israeli and foreign activists sipped coffee and sugary fruit juice on the terrace of her family home.
The pro-Palestinian International Solidarity Movement (ISM) has about 30 foreign volunteers deployed in the West Bank and focused on action against the barrier.
Israel said last year it would step up arrests and deportations of pro-Palestinian foreign activists, and try to prevent them entering the country. If questioned at the airport, the activists deny connections with the ISM.
AGAINST ALL VIOLENCE
Foreign activists in the ISM -- who include Jews, Christians and Muslims from Europe, the United States and elsewhere -- say they are committed to non-violent protest.
Some have placed themselves in front of bulldozers to prevent Israel from flattening land. Others try to persuade soldiers to put down their guns and leave Palestinian villages.
Palestinians feel emboldened by the activists' presence and non-violent methods -- the same approach they say prompted Israel to reroute the barrier away from the village of Budrus so as not to swallow up its fields.
But the activists feel frustrated.
Israel continues to build the barrier, which Palestinians call a land grab to deprive them of a viable state because it loops deep into the West Bank to take in Jewish settlements on land captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war.
Neal, an American ISM activist, said he felt the foreigners' role had been "pretty limited" but it was still useful to maintain a presence.
Yet activists and residents expressed fear that the effect on soldiers of foreign faces at protests was waning.
"They encourage us, but it is not in their hands," said Biddo resident Muhammed, 85, as he watched a protest in which medics said 25 Palestinians were hurt after troops fired tear gas and rubber and live bullets.
"It doesn't matter. They beat the internationals just as they beat everyone else," he said.
NON-VIOLENT MESSAGE SPREADING?
Analysts say the ISM, which has trained several dozen Palestinian community leaders in non-violent tactics, has helped to slowly build support for peaceful protest among ordinary Palestinians.
"They didn't invent the idea. They didn't bring it to Palestine. It has been there all along. The thing is, they showed effectively how it can work," said Palestinian politician Hanan Ashrawi.
"They managed to help in mobilization and in diverting tactics from armed or military struggle to more popular non-violent struggle. They have been very effective in that sense."
But Ashrawi, one of 70 prominent Palestinians who joined a public call for restraint and urged a peaceful uprising, said it would take time for popular support to grow.
The ISM says it tries to refrain from telling Palestinians how to protest and leads by example.
Volunteers do not throw rocks and are taught to refrain from all forms of violence, even in language.
"The level of violence used by the military makes it difficult for a non-violent movement to spread," said Huwaida Arraf, an ISM founder.
"You run into a lot of people who are skeptical, but there are a large number of people who say: We don't see another way."
SOURCE
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