EYEWITNESS  FROM  BETHLEHEM

ARTICLES & REFLECTIONS WRITTEN BY TOINE VAN TEEFFELEN

BETHLEHEM DIARY (20)

March 5-19, 2001

Fuad, Suzy and Ismail could not make their trip to Holland. It was not that they received a clear negative answer from the Israeli authorities. Things were more subtle. International traveling is now an almost impossible hurdle for Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza. Of course, it has never been easy. Many Palestinians, also before the Al-Aqsa Intifadah, have never been allowed to go abroad nor do they receive an explanation for the refusal or do they have a chance to appeal the decision. Also, by far the majority of Palestinians face an extra intensive and sometimes quite humiliating interrogation at the airport or Allenby bridge. The new situation is however now that all Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza face serious traveling difficulties, including VIP’s.

For taking a flight, you have three options: Gaza Airport, Tel Aviv Airport, and Amman Airport. Gaza Airport is not favoured. It is in the first place not easy to get a permit to travel to Gaza and, secondly, from that airport you can take flights to only a few destinations. These months it has regularly been closed off by Israel who controls access to the airport. Tel Aviv Airport is an international airport with flights to all major destinations in the world, apart from some Arab countries, and is therefore a natural point of departure. The main difficulty for Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza is to receive a permit to go to the airport. At checkpoints you have to show the permit and your flight ticket. In addition one has the possibility to go to Amman Airport but in that case you face two problems: either the Allenby Bridge between the West Bank and Amman is closed, something which regularly happens, or  it is not possible to individually cross the bridge. You have to get a special permission in advance to cross the bridge. Although the regulations seem to change from week to week, it is somewhat less difficult to get an individual permission to cross the bridge than to go to Tel Aviv airport. At the same time, traveling through Amman is often more expensive than through Tel Aviv; it is more tiring because of the extra trip to Amman, and you never know what happens with the bridge.

Suzy, Fuad and Ismail decided to go through Tel Aviv Airport. Last year they had no serious problems doing so. The first difficulty they encountered now was the absence of communication between the Palestinians and Israelis at the liaison office in Bethlehem. The liason office takes care of applications for permits. You have to go and present your application to the Palestinian side of the office, who subsequently delivers it to the Israeli Civil Administration Office located near the settlement Gush Etzion to the south of Bethlehem. There are sometimes differences in interpretations about the presence or lack of communication between the two sides at the liaison office. The Palestinian side may say that there is no contact, but the Israelis say there is. If there is no contact according to the Palestinian side, you have to go yourself to Gush Etzion for delivering your application. That was something what Fuad and the others did not like. It looks a little as if you are asking for a special treatment. There are nowadays very few people who receive a permit. What will other Palestinians think when you get a permit through a direct contact with the Israeli side? So it was decided to create a lobby for the permits with the help of the Dutch inviting organization. Our Dutch partner sent requests to the Israeli embassy who in their turn contacted Gush Etzion. However, Fuad learnt that the employees at Gush Etzion were not happy about this “top down” approach. “Why didn’t you approach us the normal way?” they asked. No permits arrived, two days, one day before departure.

Next problem was the tickets. The tickets were sent by fast mail from Holland to Bethlehem, but did not arrive. Jan Jaap, our Dutch partner, found out that the tickets were held at Israeli customs. With some extra efforts and payments, he could arrange that the tickets would arrive at the airport. In case a traveling permit would come, Gush Etzion would need to inform the various checkpoints along the road that they would have to allow the travellers to pass.

The day before departure, afternoon. Still no permit. There is an attack against a settler from Gush Etzion. Bethlehem is under stricture closure from all sides. Suzy, Fuad and Ismail give up. Jan Jaap still tries, and finds an unexpected chance through a Palestinian in Israel who happens to know the spokesperson of the Israeli army from a previous Jewish-Palestinian school exchange activity during which that person was head of a partner school. Late evening, the travelers hear that they may call an Israeli army officer to pick up the permits somewhere. Fuad says no, he has had enough of this “Chaltiology.” (“Chaltiology” is a favourite personal expression of him. It is derived from the word “Charabish” or disorder and means two things: the science or art to create confusion or a smokescreen in order to protect your interests, and the art to clear up the confusion created by others. Both are important life skills in present-day Palestine). He had already informed teachers and his administrations about his decision. Jan Jaap asks Suzy but she too does not feel comfortable with the adventure. She would have to go first to meet the Israeli officer. Not a pleasant thing to do - a woman alone leaving in the middle of the night to meet an Israeli officer. And then again, will the checkpoints around Bethlehem and at the airport be well-informed? Afterwards, people told Fuad that it is folly to think that you can travel to the airport without showing your ticket. In fact, even if you have a permit, it does not always work. A medical doctor from Bethlehem was refused entry two weeks ago and missed her flight although she had a permit. And there is always the taint of collaboration when people see that you can travel through Tel Aviv airport while others cannot. Next day, a friendly official of Gush Etzion calls to say that the permits are ready. When Fuad says that it is too late now, his interlocutor is surprised. Why doesn’t he change his flights?

* * *

Last week, Ismail told me a story about his nephew. During the Al-Adha feast, Moslem families visit each other and exchange stories. Ismail’s nephew is 21 years old and works with the tourist police who help visitors in the Church of Nativity. Heading home to Al Arroub camp, he was in a taxi taking the eastern desert road, passing Tekoa. The car was stopped and all passengers had to show their IDs. One soldier asked Ismail’s nephew to hand over his wallet. There they found his police ID. Surrounded by 11 soldiers, Ismail’s relative was led some 200 meter away from the road towards a desert environment. The soldiers ordered him to take off all his clothes. While standing there naked, one of the soldiers, who looked uncontrolled, started to threaten the nephew with a gun. Trembling, Ismail’s nephew said that he never wears guns and that he just works as a tourist police in the church. The angry soldier continued waving his gun. After a while, a commander intervened and after checking the nephew’s ID and inquiring once again about his work, he was allowed to go to the main road where he stopped a lorry that took him back to Bethlehem.

On another illegal trip to Jerusalem to visit a doctor for her hearing (there is a persistent virus in the air here for some time now), Mary tells that she heard workers at the entrance of Tantur near the Bethlehem checkpoint warning each other that soldiers were beating an old man. On her way back, she feels the urge to remind the soldiers of what they are doing but she cannot catch their attention. The latest checkpoint news is that drivers who pass the checkpoint with passengers without a permit risk confiscation of their car and license. Employers in Jerusalem or Israel who employ people without a permit have to pay some 17.000 shekel. I know somebody who commutes “illegal” teachers from Bethlehem to their work at a school in East-Jerusalem. He does not care too much about the measure.

Karishma tells about a ten months sentence Murad from Al-Arroub has received for stone throwing. Also, a student of the Freres School who participates in the Sharing Stories project has been arrested in his home in Beit Safafa.

     * * *

I sit in the garden enjoying the sun. Some unemployed workers ask if they can take care of the garden. When I say that it is not our garden, they ask for money. You are a foreigner, so you have money, they say. Jamal, the municipal secretary, tells me that the municipality is in dire straits. People presently do barely pay taxes and basic services are in danger. He says that the mayor wants to leave the country but in order to do his work effectively he needs the company of an engineer who may not get a permit. Without him, he does not go. The prices of the houses decline, apparently becaue families are leaving. Suzy tells me that each time when her mother comes up with the idea of leaving the country, she and her sisters tell her to go and take a walk.

Jara performed well on Mother’s Day at the Freres School. Just over three years, it was her first public dancing performance with her classmates on the stage in front of an audience of mainly mothers. She was not nervous and danced so quickly that the others holding her hand almost fell down. For some time now, she wants a pistol to shoot the Israelis because they do not let pass grandma. Mary at last succumbed to the pressure and let her buy a plastic pistol. I start a quarrel: Why giving toy weapons at that age? Mary says, “Just wait and see. After a few days she will completely forgetthe pistol.” She was right.

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