In the vast and arid landscape of Jordan Valley, a black van with tinted windows makes its way. He moves quickly, raising an endless trail of dust behind him. Try to follow the usual route, but nothing is usual anymore in this disputed land. The speed of the vehicle conveys the danger of the journey. Their passengers know that they are not entirely welcome by those who control these roads. Therefore, the radical settlers, new masters and lords of the territories that the Palestinians have historically used to graze their flocks, block their passage. “They see us as traitors”, he points out Daphne Banai. She, along with the rest of the travelers in the black van, are Israelis. They dedicate their lives and time to activism against military occupation of the West Bank supported by its government and its taxes. Since last October 7, they have redoubled their efforts.
“Now, we accompany Palestinian shepherds 24 hours a day, seven days a week, some of them we sleep in their communities so that they can sleep and live,” denounces this activist Machsom Watch, without shaking the dust off his boots. This organization, created in 2001, includes “women from all areas of Israeli society” who came together to end the occupation through the documentation of abuses and the accompaniment of Palestinians. “We are not enough”Banai tells EL PERIÓDICO. In its shift to the right, Israel’s population lives increasingly longer away from the conflict and, therefore, of Palestinian society, systematically punished daily. During the protests for judicial reformeven left-wing protesters ignored the claims of this minority of activists who sought to denounce the terrible occupation as part of that unprecedented social movement.
‘Palestinian lives matter’
Despite rejection and age – they all share gray hair, well into their sixties – Banai and his colleagues remain dedicated to the cause. “We feel alone“because we are a minority,” he acknowledges. Guy Hirschfeld, after joining in a hug with a Palestinian shepherd who still dares to take his cows out to graze despite the fact that the settlers have closed the water spring from which they used to drink. “But it is a matter of a few weeks or monthsbefore the Israeli public, with our help, starts talking more about the occupation and jewish supremacy”, he explains convinced to this newspaper. Dressed in a T-shirt with the words ‘Palestinian Lives Matter’, the representative of the organization ‘Look the occupation in the eyes’ he seems optimistic. “We try to wake up Israelis so that they see what is happening here, although the majority do not want to see it, they want democracy but democracy and occupation at the same time is impossible and they know it,” he says.
“In the protests against the judicial reform, there were more people who joined us,” recalls Banai, of that movement that completely paralyzed on October 7. Although the demonstrations against the prime minister have returned, Binyamin Netanyahu, the word occupation is absent. “So, more people wanted to hear things about the occupation, They were sorry for having been negligent.“, ignorant in that matter, and they wanted to join us, but it bothers me because then they said they felt bad and today they continue doing nothing while everything is getting worse,” he admits. Almost nothing remains of that organization that once brought together 500 Israeli women. They have grown older and can no longer accompany the shepherds. “The majority of our members Have they died and I am of youth, without being young,” says this woman. She feels young without realizing that she has 73 years old.
Vestiges of another generation
Banai or Hirschfeld are the vestiges of a Israeli generation who dreamed of peace. So much so that he even worked for her. Now, the majority of citizens in Israel, helped by a wall for the last 20 years, literally live with their backs to their neighboring people, the same ones that, with their taxes and their silent complicity, they help to oppress. The minimal solidarity that existed before October 7 vanished that day. “When I tell the people around me what is happening here, they look at me with a questioning face.” how am I able to help the Palestinians at this moment after everything that happened in the south,” Banai laments. “Do you want to take the Palestinians to such an extreme again? There is less empathy now, so it is very difficult to get people’s attention,” he adds.
But, whether in the Jordan Valley or in any other corner of the Occupied West Bank, the situation has never been worse. The settlers act with uncontrollable impunity, expelling Palestinians from their lands and killing those who resist. In the last two months, more than 250 Palestinians They have been killed by the violence of these radical groups or the Israeli Army. Previously, these Israeli activists could offer some protection which the Palestinians have never enjoyed, but now that is over. “If I call the police they are not going to come, they have become very hostile, and we accused of helping Hamas“, when the only thing we do is help the Palestinians,” says Banai, after recounting some episodes where he has helped members of these groups escape death. isolated bedouin communities.
“A crazy state”
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Neither the institutions nor their security forces nor their courts protect them. As part of their activism, they have taken cases of dispossession to the Supreme Court that have been ignored. “It is becoming more serious and the authorities have begun to persecute human rights activists in both Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, with levels of violence “that we had not received before,” denounces Danny, also an activist from ‘Looking the Occupation in the Eyes’. “We are in a horrible situation and this whole issue of the civil rights and the Israeli courts no longer protect either Palestinians or Israelis when these violations are committed,” explains the political scientist from inside the van, in front of an area already completely emptied of Palestinians. The aggressiveness of the settlers in the area prevents the activists from getting out of the vehicle.
“Israel has become a crazy state, because acts against your interests”, explains Danny. All of them, in their speeches, try to distance themselves from the demonym they have in common. They don’t say it out loud, but the feeling of shame is mixed with the pain of being linked to the actions of their government. “Hopefully in the next few months things will change, because if not, if they win, It is the end of the State of Israel “and we should hurry to flee from here,” concludes Hirschfeld. From that black van, they can access fewer and fewer places and the sound of its tires on the asphalt awakens the fear of the native population whom they seek to protect, fearful of being a victim of the umpteenth episode of violence in recent weeks. Powerless In the absence of empathy among their own, they give them the only thing they have left –their bodies, their company– with the longing that tomorrow the others will wake up and get into the van.