By Nathan Stuckey
March 27, 2012
Photo
courtesy Hussein Amody, 2012
Thirty
six years ago on March 30th 1976 demonstrations against the
confiscation of Palestinian land by the Israeli government spread throughout
Palestine. Six Palestinians were killed, over a hundred wounded, and
hundreds more arrested.
Land
day was one of the first large mobilizations of Palestinians with 1948
Palestine. This year, on Land Day, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians
from all over the world will march towards Jerusalem.
Today,
in Beit Hanoun, Land Day came early. The weekly Tuesday demonstration
against the occupation and the no go zone was in honor of Land Day and the six
martyrs who gave their lives defending their land thirty six years ago.
We
gathered on the road in front of the Beit Hanoun Agricultural College in
preparation for the march into the no go zone. There were about 50 of us,
the Beit Hanoun Local Initiative, the International Solidarity Movement, other
foreign activists, and Gazan activists from all over Gaza.
Palestinian
flags flew high, music played over the megaphone, and we unfurled banners in
memory of the martyrs of 1976. Young men carried olive trees, hoes,
shovels and water. We would plant the trees in the no go zone
today. We marched slowly toward the no go zone.
The
no go zone has been overgrown with thistles, for some reason the Israeli’s have
stopped bulldozing the ground so often. Perhaps they are satisfied that
they grounded most signs that people used to live here, that the no go zone
used to be a place of thriving orchards, completely to dust under the treads of
their tanks of their bulldozers.
We
made our way through the thistles using paths cut by our previous
demonstrations in the no go zone. We made our way to the trench the
Israeli’s dug to bisect the no go zone. The trench is lined with flags
from our past demonstrations. Today it is also lined with pictures of Rachel
Corrie and Hana Shalabi from last week’s demonstration.
Young
men set to work with their hoes. They cleared two areas of thistles, dug holes,
and planted young olive saplings. While the trees were being planted the
crowd chanted, “From Gaza to Sakhnin we are all united with
Bil’in.” Usually, the chant is from “from Gaza to Jenin we are all united
with Bil’in”, but this week Sakhnin was honored for its role in the first Land
Day.
After
the trees were planted we set about our second task for the day, erasing the
trench which scars the no go zone. Young men set to work with hoes and
shovels filling it in with dirt. Israeli soldiers appeared on top the
concrete tower from which they usually shoot at us. This time, they did
not shoot, they merely watched.
The
young men continued to work at filling in the ditch. Perhaps the soldiers
were afraid of shooting, afraid of inspiring even demonstrations on the 30.
Perhaps they realized that to these demonstrators, freedom is more important
than life. The young men worked steadily.
Soon
a good part of the trench was filled in. They shouldered their shovels
and hoes and we began to walk back towards Beit Hanoun. We paused at the
edge of the no go zone by some giant concrete blocks painted with Palestinian
flags, we ate cookies and drank orange juice.
Today,
we went to the no go zone and planted olive trees, God willing, on Land Day we
will plant olive trees in Al Quds.
Nathan Stuckey is a volunteer with International Solidarity
Movement
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Mt. 26:24 The Son of man indeed goeth, as it is written of him: but woe to that man by whom the Son of man shall be betrayed: it were better for him, if that man had not been born. 25 And Judas that betrayed him, answering, said: Is it I, Rabbi? He saith to him: Thou hast said it. John 13:27 And Jesus said to him: That which thou dost, do quickly.
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The pride of Jewish rural life is the “kibbutz,” a sort of collective farm settlement, of which there are presently some 250 well-populated examples in the state of Israel. A recent volume to swell the praises of these communes is Harvard University Press’ Kibbutz, Venture in Utopia. The following two extracts from this book provide a raw, startling picture of the Jews who today inhabit the Land of Christ’s Birth:
“In its attempt to create a better world, the kibbutz has found that it faces considerable opposition, and it has come to view this opposition with an intense hatred. Indeed, it is not unfair to say the kibbutz hates almost everybody, since it views almost everybody as an opponent. Outside of Israel, all the ‘bourgeois’ countries are hated, and only the Soviet Union and ‘People’s Democracies’ are ‘loved.’
“As for marriage, they believed — and still believe — that a union between a man and woman was their own affair, to be entered into on the basis of love and to be broken at the termination of love; neither the union nor the separation were to require the permission or the sanction of the community. Today, for example, if a couple wishes to marry, the partners merely ask for a joint room; if they wish a divorce, they return to separate rooms.”
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Amazing, an invasion of locusts into the Holy Land who hate everybody and live in their infestation like it was a whore house.