Caught in the storm: Locals tell eyewitness stories of Israeli-Palestinian violence
April 03, 2002
BY JESSIKA FRUCHTER/ Colorado Daily Staff Writer
While America continues to read headlines and watch televised images of almost unprecedented violence between Palestinians and Israelis, local activists abroad are weathering the storm first-hand.
The most recent wave of Palestinian suicide bombings, the first of which killed a reported 22 people on Passover, has prompted Israel to escalate its military operations in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and has sent spectators on both sides of the issue reeling.
Peace activists affiliated with the Colorado Campaign for Middle East Peace (CCMEP) in Denver have been manning their phones around the clock waiting to hear from fellow activists from the Denver area who are overseas as part of an international campaign to end the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories.
Currently, activists Nancy Stohlman and Gary Anderson, along with other international peace activists, are holed up in a hotel just outside of Bethlehem.
The Colorado Daily spoke briefly with Anderson Monday before the phone connection was broken. Anderson, expressing worry and distress, said that the activists, along with Palestinian civilians, were subject to "sniper fire and tear gas." He said also that electricity had been cut off in the hotel and that activists were rationing food.
Anderson and Stohlman have been in Israel since late March and are participating in an international solidarity movement that began almost a year ago. The initiative was the brainchild of an Israeli citizen, an American Jew and a German Palestinian, said Nadya Waziri, a member of the CCMEP.
"They formed this movement thinking that (the Israeli army) would not open fire on peaceful Palestinians if internationals were present," Waziri said.
Pointing to recent reports of international journalists and activists being wounded by fire from Israeli soldiers, Waziri, a Boulder resident, said such a rationale no longer applies.
"The Israeli government no longer seems to care about public opinion," Waziri said.
Despite their criticism of Israeli policy, Waziri said that even pro-Palestinian voices could discriminate between Israel's government and its citizens.
"There is most definitely a difference," she said.
Waziri added that while activists would not condone Palestinian terrorist activity, a context is needed to understand the recent suicide bombings.
"Human rights are not negotiable," Waziri said in criticism of Israeli policy toward the Palestinians. "And, unless you treat people like human beings, they can't act like human beings."
To date, many of the international activists are awaiting American and British evacuation teams, Waziri said. Teams are reportedly unable to reach the activists because of military blockades.
"Gary is (awaiting evacuation)," Waziri said of the Denver activists. "Nancy is not."
Waziri said these were the last details she knew of because communication had become limited.
Local peace activist Beth Daoud joined the other activists in Israel Tuesday. Two more activists are expected to arrive tomorrow.
Waziri said, for now, she was uncertain of what the activist could accomplish given the circumstances.
"I think they feel . . . they have a responsibility," she said. "If we can prevent one family, one person from being harmed then at least we are doing something. Our presence, no matter how small, is still a presence."
While international activists in Israel say they are trying to bring peace to a war-torn state, at least one representative of the local Reform Jewish community says activists may not realize the impact of their actions.
"Effective peace activism (would) cross the borders (of Israel and Palestine)," said Rabbi Deborah Bronstein, of Boulder's reform congregation Har Hashem. "Right now it's all very uneven."
Bronstein, who returned from Israel only two weeks ago, described the atmosphere there as terrifying, noting that every day she was in the country, a Palestinian suicide bombing took place.
"One should not be subject to the death penalty for sitting in a cafˇ," she said. "There is a primary feeling of hopelessness. People are afraid to their bones. (Before my visit) I don't think I would've been able to grasp the amount of terror that ordinary Israelis are feeling all the time."
"The problem with the activists," Bronstein added, "is that they know where Israel is going to target, so they can go there. But they don't know where the next suicide bomber will hit, and they can't go there."
"That isn't their fault," she said.
"But it creates a lack of balance in the quest for peace."
Bronstein said her experience largely echoes the experiences of the masses in Israel.
"Everyone I met, from everywhere in the political spectrum short of the far-right, was expressing feelings like what I was feeling," Bronstein said. "I'm not an angry person, but I feel a kind of anger and grief that I didn't feel before."
Admittedly, Bronstein said, the collective grief and anger is not limited to either Palestinians or Jews.
"I feel sure that anyone who has been to Israel is drowning in grief and anger and fear right now," she said. "This is so much more complex than just two sides to an issue. I am in total support of Israel, and I think the violence is not the answer."