To the Chairman of the Knesset, Mr. Avraham Burg.
Dear Sir,
Thank you for inviting me – as all other former members of the Knesset – to take part in today’sceremony of planting trees on Tu B’Shvat (*). I am sorry that I must inform you that I shall nottake part in a ceremony that looks to me like an exercise in hypocrisy, after what I witnessedthis week.
(*) Tu B’Shvat, the 15 th of the month Shvat according to the Jewish calendar, is the Jewish “New Year of the trees”.
Last Friday I was invited by B’Tselem, the human rights organization, to come to the Hebronarea in order to take part in another Tu B’Shvat ceremony. Two hundred peace and human rightsactivists came there, in the extreme cold, to plant olive trees together with thePalestinians who were evicted during the last weeks from their homes.
These homes are caves, where for generations the poorest of the poor have been living. In thesecrowded caves, lit only by dim oil lamps, big families live together with the sheep, that aretheir only possession, in conditions hard to describe. After their brutal eviction, many ofthem live in tents in the cold and the rain. We went there in order to lift their spirits,bringing with us olive saplings and also some warm cloths.
On the way, we were stopped by the army. As usual, we were informed that the area has beendeclared a “closed military area” and that we were forbidden to enter. After a long palaver, wewere allowed to go to Taweni village, where some of the evicted are staying, on one condition:We were not to bring with us any saplings. Policemen and soldiers searched our carsmeticulously. An activist who tried to smuggle in one single sapling was caught and thesapling confiscated. A lieutenant-colonel supervised the action.
Thus we learned hat the planting of an olive tree is a dangerous terrorist activity. TuB’Shvat, so it transpires, is a feast for Jews only, and even Jews are forbidden to observe ittogether with Palestinians.
It is easy to blame the settlers. Barak’s people pretend that the eviction of thecave-dwellers was a necessary balancing act, after Barak has heroically removed one Jewishfamily and one trailer from a hill-site nearby Ma’on settlement. Three hundredPalestinians, so it seems, are the equivalent of one illegal Jewish settler.
What we see is the classical spectacle of “good cop, bad cop.” The settlers are the bad guys,Barak is the good guy who is compelled to yield to pressure.
With all due respect, I don’t buy that at all.
Whom do these poor cave-dwellers disturb? It has been argued that the area is an army firingrange. But the army has never used it. In many other places, areas has been designated asshooting ranges as the first step towards the eviction of the Palestinian inhabitants and thesetting up of a new settlement.
It has also been argued that the cave-dweller are violated the law by moving there without apermit. But, as a matter of fact, they have been living there for many generations.
On the same day, the seven most important Israeli writers (David Grossman, Haim Guri, SamiMichael, Amos Oz, Daliah Rabikovitz, A.B. Yehoshua, S. Yis’har) published an open letter tothe Prime Minister: “Hitting the weak does not add to the glory of the army. This is not the wayyou, sir, have educated the soldiers. This is not what we thought of when we learned, aschildren, the parable of the poor man’s ewe lamb.” (**)
(**) A story every Israeli child learns in Bible class. 2 Samuel 12.)
But Barak knows exactly what he is doing. Some days ago he said that with the approach of peace,the Palestinian enemies of peace can be expexted to increase their terrorist acts. But on theground, something else is happening: With the approach of peace, Barak himself is increasinghis efforts to evict the Palestinians from the areas he wants to keep.
It is enough to look at the map. The area of the caves is located some five kilometers from theGreen Line. In this area, close to the former border of Israel, the settlements Carmel, Ma’on,Sussia and Matsadot-Yehuda were created. This is one of the “settlement blocs” that Barakintends to annex to Israel, tearing off some 30% to 50% of the West Bank. The settlers act here,as everywhere and always – as agents of the Israeli government, even if from time to time somesmall family quarrels arise between the government and the settlers, concerning timing andtactics.
In view of these annexation plans, it is understandable that an olive sapling is considered atleast as dangerous a weapon as a bomb.
Mr. Chairman, while all this happens, the Knesset looks on as a silent bystander, thusbecoming an accomplice. Therefore, I shall not take part in the parliamentary performance ofthe Tu Be’Shvat planting.