CPTnet
April 22, 2001
HEBRON: Sometimes little things really bother me

by Rich Meyer

My arms are sore. I just spent the last half hour carring 20-lb.
cauliflower plants two at a time over a dirt pile, across a road, and over
another dirt pile. Next to rebuilding a demolished house, about the
stupidest task imaginable. But hey, it's a military occupation, not a very
smart idea to begin with.

When Israel built these bypass roads that now criss-cross the West Bank, the
troubles for the Palestinian villages here increased dramatically. These
roads are the immediate cause of thousands of demolition orders -- some
issued as recently as last month. A house within sight of the bypass road
is many times more likely to be demolished than one just over the hill. The
road cuts farmers lanes to their fields, often with a guard rail and a deep
ditch on each side. Now, with this closure, Israel is trying to punish the
entire Palestinian population for their refusal to auto-evaporate. The
roads into Palestinian towns are all blocked with huge cement blocks and
dirt barricades.

Israeli officials continue to claim that 90% of Palestinians live under
Palestinian rule; this is supposed to make us doubt that there really is a
military occupation in the West Bank. So now consider this case: a farmer
in Qilkis, one mile south of Hebron, has a field of cauliflower. Hebron has
130,000 hungry people. But Israel controls the bypass roads around Hebron.
That's why, at 5pm today I found a pickup loaded with cauliflower on the
south side of the south barrier where the Qilkis-Hebron road crosses bypass
Rte. 60. There was a station wagon on the north side of the north barrier,
and a family of six making trip after trip carrying cauliflower over the
barricade, the bypass road, and the other barricade. When the back of the
station wagon was full, they loaded the seats. The girls carried one plant
at a time, the adults two.

I went on to visit a family in Qilkis who received a demolition order from
the Israeli occupation army a month ago for the house they've lived in for
five years. An hour later, when I crossed back, the cauliflower shuttle was
still going on. There was now a trailer being unloaded, and lacking a
vehicle to load, cauliflower plants were being piled alongside the road on
the Hebron side. I carried a few, then visited another family.

At about 9pm I had to deliver a backpack to the CPTer spending the night in
Qilkis. The family was still there, unloading another pick-up, adding to a
pile of cauliflower in the moonlight that was now about, well, two
truckloads. This time I helped until the truck was empty. We only stopped
when an Israeli military jeep whizzed by on the bypass road.

Is this a military occupation? I suggest you ask the people under siege in
Qilkis. Governments ordinarily attempt to provide housing, keep the roads
in good repair, and grow the economy. Here in the West Bank, the Israeli
military demolishes houses, blocks roads, and obstructs normal economic
activity. None of this contributes to Israeli security -- it is all loss.