Palestine
Peace Not Apartheid by Jimmy Carter, 2006, Excerpts
There was a unanimous
complaint among Palestinian political leaders and others that the worst and
most persistent case of abuse was in Hebron, about twenty miles south of
Jerusalem, where the biblical patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are buried.
About 450 extremely militant Jews have moved into the heart of the ancient part
of the city, protected by several thousand Israeli troops. Heavily armed, these
settlers attempt to drive the Palestinians away from the holy sites, often
beating those they consider to be “trespassers,” expanding their area by
confiscating adjacent homes, and deliberately creating physical confrontations.
When this occurs, the troops impose long curfews on the 150,000 Palestinian
citizens of Hebron, prohibiting them from leaving their own homes to go to
school or shops or to participate in the normal life of an urban community. The
Palestinians claimed that the undisguised purpose of the harassment was to
drive non-Jews from the area. The United Nations reported that more than 150
Israeli checkpoints had been established in and around the city.
These Palestinians
were convinced that some Israeli political leaders were trying through
harassment to force a much broader exodus of Muslims and Christians from the
occupied territories. They claimed that any manufactured goods or farm products
were not permitted to be sold in Israel if they competed with Israeli produce,
so any surplus had to be given away, dumped, or exported to Jordan. The fruit,
flowers, and perishable vegetables of the more activist families were often held
at the Allenby Bridge until they spoiled, and in some areas the farmers were
not permitted to replace fruit trees that died in their orchards. Their most
anguished complaints were about many thousands of ancient olive trees that were
being cut down by the Israelis. Access to water was persistent issue. Each
Israeli settler uses five times as much water as a Palestinian neighbor, who
must pay four times as much per gallon.
Teachers and parents
maintained that their schools and universities were frequently closed,
educators arrested, bookstores padlocked, library books censored, and students
left on the streets or at home for extended periods of time without jobs. They
claimed that any serious alteration between these idle and angry young people
and the military authorities could result in the sending of bulldozers into the
community to destroy homes.
One of their most
bitter grievances was that foreign aid from Arab countries and even funds sent
by the American government for humanitarian purposes were intercepted by the
authorities and used for the benefit of the Israelis, including the
construction of settlements in Palestinian communities.
