You Have The Right To Remain Occupied

Last week a number of white students were found dead in a dorm room at Columbia University in New York. The police arrived on the scene and the mayor soon declared that he would stop at nothing to find the black murderer. Shortly thereafter, the army was called in and the neighboring Harlem neighborhood, where it was claimed the alleged perpetrator must have came from or fled to, was encircled and besieged. Raids were conducted in each apartment and home, dwellings were ransacked and property destroyed. Hundreds of blacks were detained, many were DNA tested and finger printed. This continued for a month, day in and day out, but no charges were made against any suspects.

If you haven't already guessed, this is a fictional story. Such things should never occur in a functioning democracy with rule of law, civil rights and due process. But something very similar is happening to a Palestinian village called Awarta at the hands of a state that claims to be "the only democracy in the Middle East."

Nearly a month ago, a family of 5 Israeli colonists living in Itamar were found murdered in their home. The gruesome attack was immediately blamed on a Palestinian, and the nearby village of Awarta fell under the cross-hairs. The Israeli government has yet to put forward one shred of evidence that would suggest anything about the identity of the murderer. We are simply supposed to rely on the good intentions of the Israeli government. (Map right shows Itamar and Awarta)

The entire investigation has been under a gag order. This is very, very strange. Ever under the international microscope for their actions against Palestinians in Occupied Territory, the Israeli government has always put forward aggressive PR campaigns in an attempt to justify their actions and vilify Palestinians and their sympathizers. One easily recalls the tapes and images so rapidly distributed after Israeli commandos boarded a Gaza-bound civilian aid ship in international waters last year killing nine civilians. For a state whose government has suffered one PR disaster after the other, you'd think that if there was any evidence showing the murderer was Palestinian, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would be screaming about it atop the tallest building in Tel Aviv.

Yet, nothing but complete silence. Silence, of course, except for the Palestinians in the village of Awarta. Constant Israeli raids round up Palestinian civilians in what can only be understood as arbitrary arrests. The terrorizing of an entire village, held hostage to Israeli whims, is collective punishment and a regular feature of occupation.

This is occupation. A people are treated fundamentally differently and stripped of their rights because of their ethnicity. Yet while the media in the land of the free and home of the brave certainly covered the murder of the Israeli settlers, quite poorly I might add, where is the news story about how Israel's massive arrest campaigns run contrary to American values? Where is the news story about arbitrary and forced DNA testing? Where is the story about how groups of people are arrested in the middle of the night, taken from their ransacked homes and then probably tortured and at the least intimidated to provide information implicating others in the village?

Murderers can be of any religion, nationality or ethnicity. But democracies are judged, at least in part, on their respect for civil rights and the rule of law. Israel's collective punishment of occupied Palestinians in Awarta are but another clear indication of where it fails the democracy test.

Today, there was news that a Palestinian teen was found dead in Al-Khadr. This Palestinian locality outside of Bethlehem has frequently been attacked by settlers. More often than not, the settlement of origin of settlers who attack Al-Khadr is near by Neve Daniel. In recent years there have been instances of destruction of property, assault, theft and arson perpetrated by settlers from Neve Daniel against Al-Khadr (much more on settler violence here). If this became a murder investigation, would the Israelis stand for the encirclement and collective punishment of their colony Neve Daniel? Would Israelis stand silent as every Jew in the colony was arrested by the IDF, DNA tested, and possibly coerced into testimony without ever being charged?

Of course not. But we will never have to worry about how Israelis would react to such a predicament, since the IDF would never apply the same inhumane treatment and roundups to Israeli settlers, whose mere presence in the West Bank is illegal, as they do to the native Palestinians whom they have completely stripped of their rights. Most of the time, Israeli settler violence goes unpunished while Palestinians are punished whether they attack or not. That is what occupation is all about.

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