From Challenge # 83  January-February 2004

 

WAC at the Separation Wall in Jerusalem

Workers in Solidarity

Jonathan Preminger

THE WORKERS ADVICE CENTER (WAC) has members throughout the country, but seldom do they have a chance to meet. On Saturday, December 20, WAC's workers converged on East Jerusalem from Nazareth, Musmus, and Um al-Fahm, from Jaffa and Tel Aviv. Some had never been to the city before. They came to show solidarity with WAC members there whose lives are going to be disrupted by the new Israeli separation barrier.

The visit served also to strengthen the bonds among WAC's branches. We could put faces to voices until now heard only on the phone, and remind ourselves of the importance of working together, of continuing to advance the principles and practice of fair working conditions.

Given the many problems caused by Israel’s policies of separation and enclosure, the visit expressed one of the organization’s basic principles:  "No walls between workers." So often Palestinian suffering is described in general terms, but the problems that Palestinian workers face simply in finding work are rarely addressed specifically. The "separation barrier" has huge ramifications for this problem. Without work – without the basics of a stable economy – there will be no progress in Israeli-Palestinian relations.

We gathered at the Community Care Center in East Jerusalem. Asma Agbarieh, organizer of WAC's branch in East Jerusalem, introduced the participants and welcomed them. National Coordinator Assaf Adiv pointed out that most of WAC's activities take place in the Nazareth area. He emphasized the need to strengthen connections among the different branches, not letting the fence divide workers. A virtual fence, he said, has existed since at least 1993, when Israel imposed closure on Palestinians from the Territories; only now it is being physically built. This barrier is the basis for everything Sharon plans to do, but it will destroy any chance of economic independence for the Palestinians – and with that any chance for peace.

Khaled Abu-Hilal of the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions welcomed the new faces and sketched his organization’s history. He described the situation in East Jerusalem, saying that every opponent of American-style capitalism is automatically branded a "terrorist". He put unemployment in the Territories at around 70% (compared to Israel’s 11 %): it's another weapon, he said, in Israel’s arsenal against the Palestinians. The fence and the roadblocks prevent meetings, discussions, committees, and even basic voting – all the fundamentals of democratic governance that the Palestinians are continually being exhorted to "develop". He stated that the Histadrut has failed for Palestinian workers and indeed for workers in general.

Nassim Atamneh, a WAC construction team leader, told the listeners about a protest vigil he and his fellow workers had held in Tel Aviv a few days earlier in solidarity with other WAC members who still await jobs. He voiced his hope that WAC would be able to include more people from Jerusalem in its campaign, "A Job to Win." 

After lunch, we continued by bus to a section of the "Jerusalem envelope". (See map.) We were driving along on what seemed a normal road to somewhere, when a concrete barrier loomed. The road had been cancelled. The road was not a road. Blocking what was once the main route from Al Eizarya eastward toward Jericho and the Dead Sea, the barrier extends down a cross street. Its present form is temporary. The "permanent" wall will soon be built: eight meters high, with all the usual "security" accoutrements. Climbing the temporary structure is of course forbidden, although to reach the other side can take an hour or more via official crossing points. Among those whose lives the wall dismembers are the students of Al Quds University in Abu Dis. Unsurprisingly, plenty do climb to reach their classes – as long as the army is not around to see. The permanent structure will end these acrobatics.

The military police soon arrived, sirens wailing. They were clearly unhappy to see our group by the wall.

We continued southward. A potholed road led to Um Tuba, a village annexed to Jerusalem after the 1967 war. (See map, p. 7.) Beside the craters stretched a smooth new road to the notorious Har Homa, an imposing settlement on a hill overlooking the village. By paving a few more meters, Israel could have enabled the villagers to reach Um Tuba by the same new road. No dice.

Members of the Village Committee welcomed us into their school (or rather, its main part: overcrowding is such that some classes take place in scattered rooms throughout the village). They talked about the problems they face. Most are disturbingly familiar: lack of building space or permits to build, the confiscation of land for Jewish settlements and roads, the absence of basic services – although the villagers pay city taxes as high as those in the center of Jerusalem.

Um Tuba is strongly connected to Bethlehem a mile away. The fence will cut the village off from its natural metropolitan region. It will divide families, separate farmers from their land, block pupils from reaching school. It will also prevent the natural growth of the village, whose space is severely limited.

Returning to Tel Aviv was like entering another world. Every day one reads about the plight of the people living just a short drive from this metropolis. "Whining leftists" like Gideon Levi or "traitors" like Amira Hass present harrowing details. Even the popular press – Maariv or Yediot Aharonot – describes conditions on the other side. Yet amid the bustling urban life of a Mediterranean city with its offices and cafes, it is easy to relegate these images to an unused corner of the mind. To see these things with our own eyes (not to mention looking at an Israeli weapon from the wrong end) can strengthen us to keep on fighting the injustice that is carried out in our name. n

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