Sometimes, it's all just too much.

Last Sunday we, as a group, traveled into Jerusalem to meet with a human rights group, B-Tselem, an organization called the Israeli Committee Against Home Demolitions, and with Mordechai Vanunu, the man who blew with whistle on Israel's secret nuclear weapons program in the mid-1980's. Let me share some about B-Tselem. It was founded in 1989 during the first intifada to collect information about human rights violations. Since, they have issued over 120 human rights reports. The organization is very well respected and known for its impartiality and fair presentation of facts. First, the representative discussed the barrier. When complete, it is supposed to stretch 680 kilometers (420 miles) and will cost Israel $1.5 billion dollars, not including the terminals (checkpoints.) The money for the checkpoints is being donated by other nations, including America. 40% of the barrier is now complete. The route of the barrier is still in court, but as now planned, when complete, it will take 9-10% of the West Bank land (as defined and recognized by the Green Line) and de-facto annex it into Israel. She discussed the "strangulation policy" employed by Israel to restrict the freedom of movement of the Palestinians. There are 40 check points in the West Bank and 26 checkpoints between the West Bank and Israel, as well as physical road blocks that completely prevent vehicular movement on some roads, at last count, there are 470 of them. The West Bank is divided into five areas and it is difficult to impossible to move between the areas. She said that there is no logic whatsoever to the roadblocks, that they are just a type of psychological warfare. She talked about a lot of things, including the madness of the Israeli settlements in the West Bank. One of the settlements near Nablus, Yitzhar, is extremely violent. The villagers risk their lives just to harvest their olives, as their orchards are back to back with settlements. The settlers will sometimes uproot the olive trees, destroying the harvest and destroying the Palestinian's source of income. The settlers are rarely punished, even for beating Palestinians. In Hebron, near another violent settlement, it is extremely difficult to reach the police station, it is inside the settlement and there are three checkpoints just to get to it, not to mention having to walk through the Israeli area. Despite that, 300 complaints were filed last year. There were 8 indictments, and two sentences served, both one year suspended sentences...
It is so hard for me to really accept all of this. I know that it is true, but why is there so little outrage? The Palestinians are having their land stolen out from underneath them, aren't being allowed to move around to visit family or get to work, are having their crops destroyed, home demolished, are being beaten in the streets, are forced to abandon their shops because the market is taken over by Israelis... She told us that there is one street in Hebron where Palestinians have been known to crawl out their back window because they aren't allowed to be on the street in front of their house. They live there! There is no decency in this, none at all.
I was going to talk about the ICAHD tour but I don't think I can right now. Everything is so frustrating and so unjust... Yesterday, a friend of mine looked upset so I asked her what was wrong. She responded, "Sometimes, it's all just too much, you know?" And it's true. Every day people are being killed, especially in Gaza, young women my age are being dragged from their houses and arrested in the middle of the night for no apparent reason, or young women my age are fighting to be free from a refugee camp where they were born, their parents grew up, their grandparents died. Sometimes I have an overwhelming urge to tug on someone's arm as I walk down the street and just apologize. I'm sorry, I'm sorry you are forced to live like this and your children have to grow up inside a wall and I'm sorry that your story is never told...